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141
originally framed. They have done much good however, and
led to the closing of many of the worst establishments. In
1874 there were some 1,500 Slaughter Houses; in 1888, 732
only. In Kensington 48 were licensed in 1873; in 1874, 31
only. The present number is 22, and no new Slaughter House
has been opened since the passing of the Act. The defect of
the Act is that it ignores the Sanitary Authorities (Vestries,
&c.), whose Medical Officers of Health and Sanitary Inspectors
should have been made available for the purposes of inspection
and supervision. Such inspection and supervision, however, has
been kept up in Kensington with obvious advantage, although
your Vestry have no statutory authority, excepting such as is
derived from power to oppose the renewal of the annual licence.
LICENSED SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.
Thirteen of the licensed slaughter-houses are in North
Kensington (i.e., the district north of Uxbridge Road), and nine
in South Kensington (i.e., the remainder of the parish south of
Uxbridge Road). The names of the licensees, and the localities
of the premises, are set out in Table XI. (Appendix). The
several premises were inspected, in July, by the Works, Sanitary,
and General Purposes Committee, who found some of them in a
less satisfactory condition than usual, from disregard by the
proprietors of certain of the bye-laws, Comparatively little
slaughtering is now carried on, and on some of the premises
none at all, the licence being kept up apparently with the
view of maintaining the value of the premises.
It is desirable in the interests of public health that private
slaughter-houses should give place to public abattoirs, and that
the dead meat trade should be encouraged to the utmost.
The several premises are systematically visited by the
Sanitary Inspectors, although, as already stated, your Vestry have
no statutory right of control over them; the County Council