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153
County Council should be empowered to frame bye-laws for
the proper sanitary government of London; that the existing
local bodies should put them in force, and that the County
Council should be the supervisory body to see that they are
properly carried out." This scheme corresponds closely with
my proposals, in the Address above adverted to, wherein I
advocated, with the view to bringing about Unity in Sanitary
Administration, the establishment of a "Central Board to
take charge of all great matters affecting the Metropolis as a
whole, to lay down the principles on which sanitary administration
should be carried out, by passing bye-laws, &c., and
generally to exercise a supervisory control over the work
entrusted by the Local Management Acts to the Vestries
and District Boards." The Central Board, I added, should be
"legislative in its functions, the Local Boards executive, and
thus substantial unity might be attained with a minimum
of change." This substantially is the plan that was proposed
in the Public Health (London) Bill: but as many of the
Sanitary Authorities objected to power being given to the
Council to frame the bye-laws, thinking that this duty could
be equally well performed by themselves, the provisions of
the Bill were to some extent modified, with the result that
bye-laws for certain purposes are to be framed by the County
Council, whilst others are to be framed by the several
Sanitary Authorities. It may thus come to pass that byelaws
differing widely in scope will be framed by different
Sanitary Authorities. With a view to guard against this, as
far as possible, the Local Government Board have recently
forwarded to the said Authorities draft bye-laws for their
consideration. These bye-laws, meagre and inadequate as
they are, have been approved en bloc by a few of the Vestries
and District Boards. Other Authorities, your Vestry among
the number, made considerable alterations and additions
to the draft before sending the bye-laws to the Board for their
sanction. At present no further communication has been
received from the Board on the subject. It is to be hoped