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163
The nuisance Authority may provide for the enforcement of
the regulations by penalties; but regulations are not of any
validity unless and until they shall have been confirmed by the
Local Government Board.
Your Vestry, having previously resolved to put the Acts in
operation, framed Regulations which, having been confirmed by
the Local Government Board, are now in force ; and under them
some 1,500 houses in the poorest streets in the parish have been
registered. The work of registration, however, was suspended in
August last upon the illness of the temporary assistant in the
clerical department of my office, and has not been resumed, the
illness of the assistant in question having incapacitated him for
work, and the appointment not having as yet been filled up.
The Nuisance Authority, it may be mentioned, is under no
obligation to make (or having made, to enforce) regulations for all
of the purposes specified in the Acts, and I am of opinion that for
a considerable time to come the most important part of our work
will be" to put into operation the regulations which provide:-
"For the inspection of houses, and the keeping of the
same in a cleanly and wholesome state;
"For enforcing therein the provision of privy accommodation
and other appliances, and means of cleanliness,
in proportion to the number of lodgings and occupiers,
and the cleansing and ventilation of the common
passages and staircases;
"For the ventilation of rooms;
"For the paving and drainage of premises; and
" For notices to be given, and precautions to be taken in
case of any dangerously infectious or contagious
disease."
In isolated cases, when overcrowding is found to exist, it will
be easy to measure rooms, so as to enforce the provisions of Regulation
2, which prescribes the air space to be allowed for each
person, according to age; and, in like manner, should any glaring
instance of indecent occupation come to light, it will be easy to
enforce Regulation 3, which relates to the "separation of the sexes."