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110
and so a Special Act was passed. There is difficulty in dealing
with recurring trade nuisances under the Nuisances Removal Act;
but experience has proved it easy to prevent nuisance when
"offensive businesses" are conducted subject to bye-laws with
penalties for offences.
One point has been made clear since the correspondence above
referred to; viz., that the business of a bone and rag merchant is
ejusdem generis with the businesses named in the Slaughter-houses
Act, and those scheduled by the Board since the passing of that
Act. The point was settled in Passey (Appellant) v. Oxford Local
Board (Respondents), Lord Chief Justice Cockburn and Mr.
Justice Lopes having ruled that the business of "bone and rag
merchant" is an "offensive trade," of the same nature with those
specified in Section 112 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which is
framed upon the lines of the 3rd Section of the Slaughter-houses
(Metropolis) Act, 1874.
The only businesses coming under the statutory description
"offensive," other than that of a "slaughterer of cattle," carried
on in this parish, are those of tallow melter and fat extractor.
Tallow Melting.—Tucker's Factory, in the High Street, is
the only one in Kensington, and it must be confessed that the
efforts of the proprietor to prevent effluvium-nuisance have not
been altogether successful, as complaints are made from time to
time by inhabitants in the vicinity. The complaints are referred
to the Metropolitan Board, the local authority in regard to offensive
businesses. The Board, in its Annual Report for 1885, state,
that "the improvement in the manner of conducting the businesses"
(of soap boiler and tallow melter) "has been continued
during the past year, and it has not been necessary to take
proceedings for the enforcement of the bye-laws in any case;" a
statement which I suspect would be traversed by many persons
residing in Kensington Square.
Fat Extracting.—Two businesses are carried on in Tobin
Street, Notting Dale. They give rise, more or less, to effluvium
nuisance, notwithstanding improved arrangements and care on the