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10
and Labourers." This Act empowers tho locsil authorities, upon a
report made by their Officer of Health that any dwelling in a condition
dangerous to health and unfit for human habitation, to refer
such report to a Surveyor, or Engineer, for consideration, whose duty
it is to inform the local authority the cause of the evil and the remedy
thereof. After a plan, specification, and estimate havo been furnished,
the local authority is, under certain conditions, to require the
owner of such premises to perform the works certified to be necessary,
or, in default, may cause them to bo done at his cost. Owing to
some difficulty in tho means of raising a special rate for this purpose,
tho Act has not yet been put iu force in your District. It is hoped,
however, that this difficulty will soon be overcome, when I havo 110 doubt
its operation will prove highly beneficial in this as well as other districts.
Hitherto the principal powers vested in your Board have been
limited to the demolition and closing of premises positively dangerous
to lifo ; cleansing tho interiors wherever necessary for the preservation
of health, and ordering nuisances to bo removed. This last Act
very properly gives power to remedy the other inconveniences to
which the poor have so long been subjected.
Two other Acts of Parliament, likely to prove beneficial to tho
District, came into operation during the past year—one to amend
tho law and practice of vaccination. This was noticed in my last
report, but was not then in force. Tho other was for regulating tho
hours of labour for children, young persons and women employed in
workshops, and other kindred purposes. This Act extends protection
to children, young persons and women in establishments where
fewer than fifty persons arc engaged, so far as respects the hours of
labour and the age at which children shall be set to work; and also
makes compulsory the employment of certain machinery to abate the
injurious effects of dust upon the health of operatives engaged in
grinding, glazing, polishing, or any other process. It also authorises
the local authority, by their Officer of Health, or Inspector of
Nuisances, under an order of a Justice of the Peace, to enter into
any workshop and examine any person in respect of any matter
within the provisions of the Act, and to recover penalties for their
violation. In the regulation of the hours of labour there can be no
doubt that the measure will prove beneficial to operatives, and the
somewhat complicated regulations with respect to children will effectually
prevent emploj^ers, in Districts such as this, where juvenile
labourers are abundant, from employing, in any case, children under
thirteen years of age.
With respect to the water supplied to the District, I have again to
direct your attention to the fact that it is still intermittent, and its
filtration very imperfect. The winter of tho past year was distinguished
by an unusual amount of heavy rain, and this, followed by
excessive heat, produced very variable results upon the water supplied
from tho Thames. In January its banks were overflowed