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30
NUISANCES REMOVAL ACTS.
This is the last Report I shall be called upon to make under the r.
old Acts, which have been repealed. A total of 4354 houses were
visited and reported upon by the three Inspectors, and 11,615 subsequent
visits were paid; a grand total of nearly 16,000 visits,
which is 4549 more than last year. This total does not include
visits to serve notices (3330 in number), or the disinfection of
(1004) premises, after cases of infectious disease. The disinfecting
staff fumigate houses with sulphur, and purify clothing and
bedding by superheated steam, and in their spare time they serve
notices, and act as messengers and dust inspectors.
The sanitary measures carried out during the year are shown in
Table VI. in the Appendix.
Legal proceedings have been somewhat numerous: 3330
statutory notices were served; but as many of these were disregarded,
it was necessary to issue no less than 423 summonses.
About half of these were withdrawn on payment of costs, the
necessary work having been completed before the day of hearing.
The Magistrates, at Worship Street, granted 208 orders of various
kinds, but in twenty cases even these orders were disobeyed, and
penalty summonses had to be issued before we could get the work
done.
I did hope that the new Public Health (London) Act would
diminish our attendance at the Court, but to my disappointment
the Magistrates have declined to inflict penalties for disobedience
to statutory notices, and will only grant orders as before.*
*Since this Report was written, the Magistrates have inflicted penalties on several occasions
for disobedience to Statutory Notices.