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44
DISEASES PREVENTION (METROPOLIS) BILL.
On the 2nd August, 1883, long after the previous section
was in type, a Bill with the above title was introduced in the
House of Commons by the President of the Local Government
Board with the object of making " better provision as regards the
Metropolis for the isolation and treatment of persons suffering
from Cholera and other infectious diseases." Should the Bill
pass, it cannot fail to have very considerable influence on the
future of the Metropolis, regarded from a public health point of
view, dealing, as it does, with questions of the first importance.
For instance, Section 2 makes the Managers of the Asylum
District a " Local Authority " under the Diseases Prevention
Act, 1855,* thus constituting them a Sanitary Authority for
certain purposes of Diseases Prevention, with powers to utilise
their buildings, ambulances, staff, &c., for the execution of
powers and duties conferred, or imposed, on them under the said
Act, or this Act.
By section 6, compulsory powers of purchase are given to
the Managers, enabling them to obtain land, with approaches.
&c., for three wharves or landing places, within the Metropolis,
and one beyond the Metropolis (i.e., at Long Reach, where the
hospital ships are moored), to facilitate the conveyance cf the Rick
to hospital ships or hospitals on or near the Thames—this being
the first occasion of such powers having been conferred.
The Local Authority (i.e., Vestry or District Board of
Works) will be empowered to borrow money for provision of
hospital accommodation under the Sanitary Act, 1866 (Sec. 37),
and a part of the money expended in this way, together with
two-thirds of the salaries or remuneration of officers and servants
employed in hospitals so provided, will be repayable out of the
Common Poor Fund.
• The Local Authority for executing" the Diseases Prevention Act is "the
Local Authority acting in execution of any general Act in force for the time
being for the removal of nuisances."