View report page

63
The case for the Corporation as the Port Sanitary Authority was set out by
learned counsel, who stated that—
The application was made on behalf of the Corporation acting as the Port
Sanitary Authority of the Port of London under Section 112 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891.
Under the previous section of that Act, section 111, the Mayor and
Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London were to continue to be the
Port Sanitary Authority of the Port of London and were to pay out of their
corporate funds all their expenses as such Port Sanitary Authority. Then
section 112 enabled the Local Government Board by order to "assign to the
"Port Sanitary Authority of the Port of London any powers, rights, duties,
"capacities, liabilities, or obligations of a Sanitary Authority under this Act,
"or a Sanitary Authority under the Public Health Act, 1875, and any Act
"extending or amending the same respectively, with such modifications and
"additions (if any) as may appear to the Board to be required, and the order
"may extend to the said Port a bye-law made under this Act otherwise than
"by the Port Sanitary Authority, and any such bye-law until so extended
"shall not extend to the said Port ; and the said Port Sanitary Authority
"shall have the powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations
"assigned by such order in and over all waters within the limits of the said
"Port, and also in and over such districts or parts of districts of riparian
"authorities as may be specified in any such order, and the order may extend
"this Act, and any part thereof, and any bye-law made thereunder, to such
"waters and districts and parts of districts when not situate in London."
Then sub-section 3 of that section contains a provision enabling the Port
Sanitary Authority to delegate any of its powers to any of the riparian
authorities, and provides that except in so far as such delegation extends, no other
authority shall exercise any powers conferred on such Port Sanitary Authority
by the order of the Board within the limits of the Port of London.
The limits of the Port of London were originally defined by a Treasury
Minute of the 1st of August, 1883, and for the purpose of exercising their
jurisdiction over the area, as it then was, an Order was made under this section
by the Local Government Board on the 25th March, 1892.
On the 30th June, 1898, an Order of the Local Government Board
extended the powers and duties of the Port Sanitary Authority to the whole
of any wharf and of the area within the gates of any dock, and the buildings
thereon respectively.
The object of this order was to clear up certain doubts that had arisen or
that might arise with regard to the jurisdiction of the Port Sanitary Authority
within the area of the docks themselves, or on any wharf, but since then, cases