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garden because of this nuisance. The saw dust is blowing all over the place
and some has even been deposited on the front lawn of the house. Under
the circumstances, it will be very inconvenient to enjoy the privileges of a
garden in the coming season, if this trouble is allowed to be continued.”
It cannot be realised, without examining our records, what a waste of time
and trouble results to the Public Health Department in endeavouring as far as
possible to obtain amelioration of these conditions which should never be permitted
to arise.
Complaints which cannot be dealt with by the Sanitary Authority may be
summarised as arising from the following causes:—
NOISE.—The nuisance that may be caused to persons with children
in such a quarter as Leadale Road, where wood is sawed until a late hour
of night in works built 35 feet from the houses may be almost intolerable.
DUST.—This may give rise to much complaint and abiding trouble to
neighbours.
SMOKE.—Smoke, if not black, or if only intermittent or during certain
processes, may give rise to almost insurmountable difficulties.
UNPLEASANT ODOURS.—Smell from engines, or soot, or from processes
of manufacture, may give very real trouble to neighbours, without
coming within the scope of the Public Health Acts. All the above difficulties
have arisen from time to time, even as regards the timber works mentioned
above, and complaints are constantly recurring of one or the other unpleasantnesses
from all over the borough.
VIBRATION.—An example of nuisances from this cause arises in
connection with the factories of the Bruce Hall Plate Co. in Well Street
and Chatham Place, the occupiers of the adjoining houses complaining of
the vibration caused by the machinery.
In conclusion, it may be said that the uncontrolled erection of factories or
workshops in back gardens and waste plots may in itself be detrimental to health
by restricting light and air, that the present system makes it inevitable in very
many instances that the Sanitary Authority can enforce many of the requirements
of the Factory and Workshop Act and Regulations only after occupation, which
leads to considerable difficulty and waste of time and trouble in administration,
and that a large number of nuisances occur which must be detrimental to health
but cannot be abated under any powers possessed by the Sanitary Authority.
G. H. Dart,
Medical Officer of Health.