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60
spread of infectious disease, and believe that an epidemic might thus
be confined within very narrow limits, if the occurrence of the
earliest cases were promptly brought under the notice of the local
sanitary authority.
INSPECTION OF BAKEHOUSES.
Reference was made in the Report of the Vestry for the year
1882-3, to the unsatisfactory state of the law regarding the sanitary
inspection and regulation of bakehouses. This important question
was brought under the notice of the Government, and resulted in
legislation (the Factory and Workshop Act, 1883) which imposes
special penalties on the occupier of any bakehouse allowing the
same to be in an unsanitary condition, and enables a Court of
Summary Jurisdiction to order the adoption of means for removing
the ground of complaint. Under this Act the Vestry also have
power to enforce certain sections of the Factories and Workshops
Act, 1878, relating to the cleanliness, ventilation, overcrowding,
and sanitary arrangements of retail bakehouses.
In the case of bakehouses brought into use after the 1st June,
1883, no water closet or ashpit is to be in, or communicate with,
any such place; the cistern for supplying water to the bakehouse
may not be connected with a water closet; and no opening
from any drain or pipe conveying sewage matter is allowed within
the bakehouse. It is anticipated that these requirements, without
being unnecessarily irksome, will be found in practice sufficiently
stringent to ensure the observance of decency and cleanliness in
the manufacture of bread.
WATER SUPPLY.
In the month of August a letter was received from the Local
Government Board, calling attention to a paragraph in the Report
of Colonel Bolton, the Water Examiner appointed under the
Metropolis Water Act, 1871, for the previous month, suggesting
that a supply of water on the constant system should be provided in
the Golden Square District of the Parish. The Vestry learned
with much satisfaction that the Grand Junction Water Works
Company had almost simultaneously given public notice of their