View report page

122
lescents generally; and (8), Transference of Vaccination
arrangements to the Hospital (that is, the Sanitary) Authority,
Previous sections of this Report will have shown to how large
an extent, either by law or in practice, my views have already
been carried out. Parliamentary sanction, I doubt not, will
sooner or later be given to those recommendations which are
as yet in advance of public opinion.
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891;
BYE-LAWS, Etc.
The subject of Sanitary legislation, which occupied so
large a space in my last annual report, calls for little notice on
the present occasion, nothing of importance, as regards
the Metropolis, having been added to the Statutes in the Parliamentary
Session of 1892.
The year, however, was distinguished by the coming into
operation of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which
distinctly strengthened the position of Sanitary Authorities
in respect of proceedings for the abatement of nuisances.
The mere consolidation of public health legislation has proved
a great convenience, and would have greatly eased sanitary
administration had it stood alone. But the additional powers
given, and the moral effect upon negligent property-owners of
the more stringent penalties to which they are liable, for noncompliance
with the requirements of the Sanitary Authority's
notices, have further facilitated our work in an altogether satisfactory
way, and with the result of largely reducing the
number of occasions on which it has been found necessary to
take proceedings at the Police Court. The full powers of the
Act, however, have not at present been brought into operation,
for, even now, seventeen months after the date at which
the Act came into force, no bye-laws have been made. A
period of six months was allowed to the County Council, and to
the Sanitary Authorities, for preparing bye-laws, and draft byelaws
were framed and submitted to the Local Government