View report page

227
would be their duty to deal with many other cases than those mentioned
in the District Surveyor's List, which is far from being exhaustive. The
Vestry,' it was said, 'are fully alive to the importance of the subject
and in evidence of their desire to do whatever may be necessary in the
interests of public health' were now taking proceeding to close a considerable
number of underground rooms not comprised in the lists of
District Surveyors, upon the ground that they are unfit for human
habitation.'"
The County Council, in a further communication (27th May) from
the Building Act Committee, stated, "that although they attached
considerable importance to the views entertained by the Vestry,
they felt that no discretion was conferred upon them by the
statute in dealing with cases in which it was found that the law
was not being duly observed." Your "Vestry, thereupon, directed
the necessary steps to be taken, in proper cases,* to enforce the
provisions of the Act with regard to the rooms mentioned in the
lists of the three District Surveyors, received in March and June,
which comprised 242 rooms in 187 houses. Notices were served
and many of the rooms were brought into conformity with the Act.
The County Council assisted in the work, by serving penal notices
when the required alterations were not carried out; the general
result being that the rooms were rendered legally habitable, or
ceased to be occupied " separately."
BORACIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE OF MILK.
The question whether the addition of boracic acid to milk or
cream is injurious to health, received much attention during the
past year at the hands of the Special Purposes Committee and
your Vestry. This question' was carefully considered by the
Public Analyst and myself in 1887, and formed the subject of a
* Many rooms had been reported by the District Surveyors which were not
"occupied separately as dwellings." The views of the Law and Parliamentary
Committee as to the interpretation to be placed upon the word "separately" were
communicated to the County Council, and were endorsed by the Council, being
to the effect that the enactment being a penal one must be strictly construed, no
undue scope being given to it, and that for a room to come within the definition
contained in the section, it must be held "separately" from any other room or
rooms in the house.
i 2