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131
T drew the attention of the Works, Sanitary, and General
Purposes Committee to the subject, and on their recommendation
your Vestry resolved:—
"That a communication be addressed to the Lord President of the
Council and to the President of the Local Government Board, calling
attention to the fact that in all parts of the kingdom (the Metropolis
excepted) the Sanitary Authority is the local authority under the above
Bill, and suggesting the desirability of the Sanitary Authorities in the
Metropolis—viz., the Vestries and District Boards of Works, being
made the local authorities for the areas severally under their control
the duty of the Metropolitan Board of Works (not being a sanitary
authority) to be confined to the making of regulations uniform for the
Metropolis, and subject to confirmation by the Local Government
Board."
The following letter, accordingly, was addressed to the Lord
President:—
" My Lord,
"The Kensington Vestry have observed with satisfaction that it is
proposed by the Public Health (Dairies, &c.) Bill,' to make the
Sanitary Authority in all rural and urban sanitary districts, the 'Local
Authority,' under the 34th Section of the Contagious Diseases
(Animals) Act, 1878, and Orders made under it.
"They regret to perceive, however, that the Bill, as it now stands,
would except the Metropolis from this wise arrangement, as the Metropolitan
Board of Works would continue to be the Local Authority. The
Vestry desire to point out that the Metropolitan Board is not a sanitary
authority, having no medical or sanitary staff properly so called. On
the other hand, every Vestry and District Board possesses a sanitary
staff—Medical Officer of Health and Inspectors, thoroughly acquainted
with the work of inspection, and fully competent to discharge the
duties devolving upon the Local Authority, which duties, in respect of
cowsheds, at least, they, as a matter of fact, do actually perform at the
present time.
"The Vestry, therefore, would respectfully submit that it would be
to the public interest that the Metropolitan Vestries and District
Boards of Works, being the Sanitary Authorities, should also be, in
their several districts, the Local Authority under the Bill.
"But as regulations must from time to time be framed under the
Dairies, &c., Order, 1879, or any subsequent Order, and as it is desirable