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63
On the second point the Commissioners recommend that
the duty of discovering illegally inhabited cellars should be
placed in the hands of the inspectors of the local sanitary
authority, as suggested by the Vestry.
Following upon the Report of the Royal Commission, an
Act of Parliament has been passed under the short title of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885, by which legislative
effect has been given to the recommendations of the
Royal Commissioners with respect to the Labouring Classes
Lodging Houses Acts. Other provisions of the Act include
the repeal of two sections in the Artizans and Labourers
Dwellings Act (1868) Amendment Act, 1879, by which owners
of property condemned under the Act of 18(38 might compel
the Local Authority to purchase the same; the amendment of
the Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Acts,
1875 to 1879, the amendment of the law with respect to
interest on loans granted by the Public Works Loans Commissioners
for the purposes of the Act, the general Sanitary
law in one or two minor particulars, and the Settled Land
Act, 1882. Power is also given to sanitary authorities to
deal with tents, vans, sheds, or similar structures used for
human habitation, if the same are overcrowded or otherwise
injurious to health, in the same manner as if they were
dwelling houses. But probably what will prove one of the
most far reaching of the sections of the Act in its bearing on
subsequent legislation, is that which holds that in any contract
for the letting of houses for habitation by the working
classes, there shall be implied a condition that the house is at
the commencement of the holding in all respects reasonably
fit for habitation. The value of the houses coming within
the operation of this scheme in the Metropolis, arc dwelling
houses assessed to the poor rate upon an annual value noi
exceeding £20. The principle ot this provision is no doubt
sound, but it remains to be seen how far it will answer tinexpectations
of its framers.
Some particulars of the buildings now in course of erection
by the Vestry for the labouring poor are given on page 64.