View report page

198
the machinery. The Acts are to be made to apply to all parts of the country,
and may be adopted for the Metropolis by the Metropolitan Board of Works, if
one of her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State approves of such adoption.
Section 2 enables the Local Authority to provide separate houses or cottages
for the labouring classes, whether containing one or several tenements.
Section 3 enables Her Majesty and the Justices for Middlesex, in the event
of the removal from their present sites of certain prisons in the Metropolis, to
sell and convey the sites to the Metropolitan Board of Works, at such price as
will enable the Board, without incurring serious loss, to appropriate the sites
for the purposes of the Acts, as amended by the New Act.
Section 4 is an amendment of Torrens's Acts, and takes away from the owner
of any premises who is required to repair or demolish such premises the power
to require the Local Authority to purchase them. If the Local Authority fail
to act upon the report of the Officer of Health that any premises are unfit for
human habitation, &c., within a reasonable time, any Sanitary Authority, or
other Local Authority, having jurisdiction in or near the parish or place, or the
owner of adjoining property, may complain of such failure to the Local
Government Board, which, after inquiry may order the Local Authority to
put in force the said provisions.
Section 5 amends Cross's Acts, and extends them to all Urban Sanitary
Districts. If the Local Authority fail to prepare a "scheme," after having
received an "official representation," the confirming Authority, after inquiry,
may direct the Local Authority to make a scheme for the improvement within
a given time.
Clause 6 refers to loans, &c.
Clause 7 states that it shall be the duty of a Local Authority to put in force
its powers to secure the proper sanitary condition of all premises within its
district.
Section 8 amends the Lodging-house Clause of the Public Health Act, 1875,
enabling a Sanitary Authority to make bye-laws without the previous declaration
by the Local Government Board that the section is in force.
Section 9 refers to the housing of hop and fruit pickers, Sec.
Section 10 brings tents, vans, &c., used for human habitation, under
inspection and sanitary control, with power of entry to authorised person.
Section 11 applies to certain provisions of this and other Acts as to
bye-laws.
Section 12, with the view of cheapening land, amends the Settled Land
Act, 1882, as regards the erection of buildings for the working classes, by
enabling land to be sold or leased for less than the highest price or rent
obtainable. It also enables improvements on which capital money may be
expended, to include, in addition to cottages for labourers, &c., whether
employed on the settled land or not, any dwellings available for the working
classes. The same power to sell or lease land is given to corporate bodies.
The expression "cottage" may include a garden of not more than half-an-acre,
provided that the estimated annual value of such garden shall not exceed £1.