View report page

165
report of this Committee was duly presented and approved
by the Conference, as was also a report by the "Executive
Committee" on the subjects referred, viz:—(a) the best
means of carrying out the duties imposed by the Act on
District Authorities; (b) the relation of these Authorities
to the County Council under the Act; [c] the methods of
procedure to be taken under the Act, &c. The said reports,
and full minutes of the proceedings, were in due course
sent to the Council, and also to the Sanitary Authorities ;
but one could not help feeling that the Conference had
had little or no practical good effect. Full particulars of all
the proceedings will be found in my last annual report (pages
153-162 inclusive), as well as an elaborate report thereon of
the Housing of the Working Classes Committee of the
London County Council; to which is appended a series of
recommendations setting out the principles which should guide
the Council in considering schemes under Part II. of the Act,
submitted by the Local Authorities; the conclusion arrived at
by the Committee being, that re-construction schemes for insanitary
areas should be treated in a similar manner to street
improvements, i.e., that the Council should contribute a portion
of the cost; and this is the course which the Council have
resolved to adopt.
THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF SANITARY
AUTHORITIES.
In August last a correspondence under the heading
" Bumbledom and Disease" appeared in the Times, which
raised a question as to the duty of a Sanitary Authority with
regard to the inspection of houses. It was commenced over
the initials "W. B. E." by a gentleman who felt aggrieved that,
having taken a furnished house in this parish on faith of a
"certificate" that "the drainage was good," one of his servants
fell ill of diphtheria within a week, viz. on July 30th, and his