View report page

190
Your Vestry adopted the 800 cubic feet standard in
1876; and in 1877, the matter having been brought to the
attention of the Justices of the Kensington Petty Sessional
Division, 800 feet was adopted by them also, as a standard,
with the result that that amount was required to be provided
in all of the cowhouses in the division, which comprises the
parishes of Chelsea, Fulham, Hammersmith, Acton, and
Willesden, as well as Kensington. The provision of 800
feet continued to be enforced by the Justices until their
jurisdiction was transferred to the County Council—in
1889—by the Local Government Act of 1888; and this,
notwithstanding that the requirements of the Metropolitan
Board of Works, as Local Authority under the Contagious
Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, were satisfied by the provision,
in certain cases, of 600 feet— "the height of the shed in
excess of 16 feet" not being "taken into account in
estimating the air-space," as I had recommended in 1875.
It will be interesting to your Vestry to learn that the highest
official authority, the Local Government Board, have now
given the sanction of their opinion to the soundness of the
views which your Vestry adopted, and with the aid of the
Justices were enabled to put into practice, fifteen years ago,
having in 1891 informed an extra-metropolitan Sanitary
Authority that 800 feet for each cow was a suitable air-space
in cowhouses, and that 600 feet was insufficient.
In 1885 a new Dairies Order was issued, which enabled
the Local Authority to frame more stringent regulations,
especially for the prevention of contamination of milk, and
spread of infectious disease through the agency of milk. The
defect in legislation, qua Cowsheds, Dairies, &c., as in the
cognate case of the Slaughter-houses Act, is that no attempt
has been made to utilise the services of the Medical Officers
of Health and the Sanitary Inspectors for purposes of inspection
and snpervision, the Sanitary Authorities (Vestries, &c.)
being ignored. There has been considerable reduction in the