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go a step further, and enact that an infectious person not provided
with lodging or accommodation, in which proper precautions could
be taken to prevent the spreading of the disorder by such person,
should be compulsorily removed to hospital.
Section 16 deals with penalties. For offending against any
enactment by which no penalty is specifically imposed, including
the offences of wilfully obstructing the duly authorised officers
of the Local Authority, or obstructing the carrying out of any
order of a Justice, the penalty is not to exceed £5: and if the
offence is a continuing one, a daily penalty not exceeding 40s. a
day, so long as the offence is continued, is incurred. Penalties
are recoverable in a court of summary jurisdiction, on the information
or complaint of the Local Authority, or of their duly authorised
officers, but not otherwise. The amounts are to be paid to the
Local Authority (section 18).
The Local Government Board, in a circular letter to the
several Sanitary Authorities, dealing with the provisions of the
statute, which "confers large powers with respect to matters of
much importance in relation to the public health," expressed their
"trust that the Local Authority and their officers would use every
effort to carry out efficiently the powers thus entrusted to them."
CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE ACT: INHABITED
HOUSE DUTY.
The 26th section (2) of the Customs and Inland Revenue
Act, 1890, contains sanitary provisions of considerable importance
and which entail a somewhat invidious duty on Medical
Officers of Health. These provisions, which are intended to
secure remission of taxation at the dictum of the Medical
Officer of Health, are set out in a letter which I received from
the Local Government Board, as follows:—