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109
Removal Acts, resolved, in 1883, to direct the attention of the
Metropolitan Board of Works to the subject, and to request
them to consider the desirability of declaring the business of a
"marine store dealer" an "offensive business," under the provisions
of the Slaughter-houses (Metropolis) Act, 1874, Section 3.
It was felt that if the business were scheduled under the Act,
proper construction of the premises where it is carried on, proper
impermeable receptacles for the collection, storage, and removal
of the fat, &c., and frequent, if not daily, removal of offensive
matters from the premises, might be secured.
The Board, however, did not adopt your Vestry's view of the
matter, stating in their reply that "the businesses to which the
Act of 1874 refers, are businesses which include processes of
manufacture of a more or less offensive character;" and that "the
mere collection of a mass of refuse matter into one place" is not
a "business "within the meaning of the 3rd Section of the Act.
But among "offensive" businesses named in the Act are those
of "bone boiler," "tallow melter," and "fat extractor," the
staple articles of which are obtained largely from "rag and bone
shops." The "processes of manufacture," moreover, in melting
tallow, and in boiling bones, or hog wash, to extract fat, are not
very obvious; and, it must be added, the bye-laws for the
regulation of these "businesses" expressly forbid collections of
bones, fat, &c., to be kept and exposed on the premises so as to
pollute the air. Such collections should not be allowed to
remain exposed in the neighbourhood of the stores where they
are gathered for the purposes of the scheduled "businesses," and
which are so much more numerous than the "manufactories."
The Board were of opinion that the nuisance brought under their
notice "should be dealt with under the Nuisances Removal Act,"
which they said, truly enough, was "intended to apply to such
cases." This Act was also intended to apply to the "offensive
businesses" now regulated under the Slaughter-houses Act, in
respect of which the Board is the "Local Authority." In practice,
however, it was found impossible to deal effectually with nuisances
arising in the conduct of those businesses under the general Act,