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180
mately this Board (20th July) drew the attention of the
Council to clause 21 of the Public Health Bill, then before Parliament,
and intimated their opinion that when the Act came
into operation, bye-laws could not then be made on the subject
of brick-making, for the County of London, under section 23 of
the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. Even, however, if a
bye-law on the subject would not be ultra vires, on this ground,
it seemed to the Board that Sanitary Authorities will be able
to deal with nuisances from the trades in question under the
said clause, and consequently that it is not necessary that the
County Council should make a bye-law on the subject. In
view of this opinion of the Board, the Sanitary and Special
Purposes Committee reported that the bye-laws made by
the Council must be considered as dropped, and they were
dropped accordingly. It remains to be seen whether your
Vestry will be enabled, under the new Act, to deal with the
nuisance effectually. It may be mentioned that whilst the
Public Health Bill was passing through the House, I urged
the desirability of a clause being inserted giving power to the
County Council to make bye-laws for regulating this offensive
trade. No such clause, however, is to be found in the Act.
The 21st. section referred to by the Local Government Board
reads as follows :—
"Where any premises used for any trade, business, process, or
manufacture causing effluvia, is certified to the Sanitary Authority by
their Medical Officer of Health, or by any two legally qualified medical
practitioners to be a nuisance, or injurious or dangerous
to the health of any of the inhabitants of the district, such authority
shall make a complaint, and if it appears to the Petty Sessional Court
hearing the complaint that the trade complained of is a
nuisance, or causes any effluvia which is a nuisance or injurious or
dangerous to the health of any of the inhabitants of the district, then,
unless it be shown that such person has used the best practicable means
for abating the nuisance, or preventing or counter-acting the effluvia,
the person so offending shall be liable to a fine not
exceeding fifty pounds."
The above section applies to any manufacture in which
effluvia are given off, though the trade may not be an offensive