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which take up time, and are unnecessary when an owner or
occupier is found willing to follow good advice. The total of
"sanitary orders" issued, therefore, does not include cases in
which work has been done by the owner or occupier at the
request of the Inspector. The statements in previous reports, as
to the " number of houses inspected," applied to primary
inspections only. When a nuisance is found to exist, and it is
not at once abated, repeated inspections may be required—as
many as six should legal proceedings become necessary. In
cases of infectious disease treated at home, under circumstances
endangering the spread of disease, through the omission of
proper precautions, numerous visits are paid to the infected
house.
During the last five years the abatement of nuisances has
been accelerated by the plan of serving "preliminary notices "
upon the parties liable, immediately on discovery. These
notices are often as effectual as the more formal notice which,
previously, it had been the rule to serve only after the nuisance
had been reported to the Works, Sanitary, and General Purposes
Committee, and upon confirmation by your Vestry of the
recommendation of the Committee. When the notice is not
complied with, recourse is had to a summons before a magistrate,
a step which, when necessary, should always be taken with
the least possible delay.
In a previous Report I had to observe that " the difficulties
which beset legal proceedings, i.e., at the Police Court, tend to
cool the ardour of Sanitary Inspectors in having recourse to
magisterial aid." The delays were simply intolerable. I am
glad to bear witness to an improvement in this respect, since,
acting upon a recommendation I made in 1878, your Vestry
has authorised proceedings before the magistrates sitting at the
Vestry Hall —an arrangement by which much time has been
saved, besides securing in nearly every instance the object in
view. We have cause to thank the magistrates for their willingness
to take our cases, adding considerably as they do to the
time devoted by them to the administration of justice, and for