View report page

175
nuisance from this cause, under the Nuisances 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 ia carried on,
proper impermeable receptacles for the collection, storage, and
removal of the fat, &c,., and frequent, if not daily, removal of
offensive matter from the premises, might be secured.
The Board, however, did not adopt your Vestry's view of
the matter, stating in its 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 cf 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 was of opinion that the nuisance
brought under its notice " should be dealt with under the
Nuisances Removal Act," which it 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