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79
Public Health (London) Act, 1891.—The Public Health (London)
Law Consolidation and Amendment Bills which were fully
dealt with in the report for the previous year, have become
law in a consolidated form under the above heading.
The Vestry, upon the recommendation of the Special Comtmitee
referred to in the report for 1890-91, petitioned against
the Bill, and at the instance of Sir A. Rollit, M.P. for
South Islington drafted a series of amendments which were
sent to the Metropolitan Members of Parliament, to the Local
Authorities of the Metropolis, and to the President of the
Local Government Board, upon whom, moreover, they were
pressed by the Members representing the Borough.
A conference of Metropolitan Local Authorities was subsequently
held at the Vestry Hall of St. George, Hanover Square, when
these and other amendments were agreed to, and in June, 1891,
a very numerous deputation representing almost all the local
authorities of the Metropolis waited upon the President of the
Local Government Board to protest against the more objectionable
clauses of the Bill, and to urge upon him to amend the
Bill in the manner suggested by the Vestry of Islington and
other Metropolitan Local Authorities.
The result of this action was seen when the Bills as consolidated
under the above heading became law, and may be gathered
from the following extract from the Report of the Special
Committee to which the Bill had been referred by the Vestry:—
"Your Committee is gratified to find that, although still
"a centralizing measure, several important modifications were
"made during the passage of the Bill through the House of
"Commons, and that these modifications were in the direction
"suggested by this Vestry and other Local Authorities of the
"Metropolis. Among them may be mentioned the substitution
"of the 'Sanitary Authority ' for the ' County Council' as the
''authority to make by-laws for dealing with certain nuisances
"which are more particularly under the control of that
''authority; the removal of the responsibility hitherto cast
"upon house-holders with regard to the sweeping and cleansing
"of the footways and watercourses in front of their premises,
"which is devolved under the Act upon the local authority;