View report page

125
per day (during default, and at the discretion of the Justice.
Sometimes the work is not begun even, within the time limited
by the order. The issue of a summons for disobedience then
becomes requisite: this usually rouses the defendant to the
necessity for action, and generally before the day of hearing (that
is, within seven days) the work will have been done, the nuisance
will have been abated, and the case will be at an end. The proceedings
will by this time have lasted for many weeks, and
meanwhile the inmates of the house may have been suffering in
health and comfort without remedy. Nay, more, they may think
themselves fortunate if they are not made to pay an increased
rent to compensate their aggrieved landlord for the trouble and
expense to which he has been put. It may be added that notice
of appeal against the Justice's Order may be given, and many
more weeks may pass before the case can be finally adjudicated at
Quarter Sessions.
" It is a commonly received opinion—it has been said
very often of late—that the law is sufficient for all purposes,
and that what is wanted is improved administration. But I
venture to say that the law is not sufficient for dealing effectually
with an obstructive defendant or bad landlord, and that there is
no power by which 'the nuisance authority can effect abatement
of a nuisance expeditiously. What is wanted is power to sanitary
officials to initiate proceedings, by notice, upon discovery of the
nuisance : power, moreover, should be given to the Justice to inflict
a penalty for the offence of creating a nuisance. Bad landlords
know that they incur no risk by disregard for a considerable period
of the requirements of the nuisance authority, as set out in the
' notice,' and they act accordingly. The public on the other
hand, believing the law to be all-sufficient, are apt to lay the
blame for delay, unjustly, upon the nuisance authority and their
officers. It must be added that bad tenants are quite as common
as bad landlords, and the tenant is often responsible for the
nuisance which the landlord is called upon to abate. It is the
fact, moreover, though it would hardly be inferred from the circular
letter, that proceedings for the abatement of nuisances are taken
in tens of thousands of cases yearly in the Metropolis.