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18
the owner of any property in the neighbourhood may complain to
the Metropolitan Board, and the Board shall then proceed as
though it were the Vestry, and of course at the cost of the Vestry.
It will thus be seen that the Medical Officer is the pivot upon
which all preliminary proceedings move, and that if he does not
report, neither the Vestries nor the Metropolitan Board can take
cognizance of the condition of the premises, except under the
Nuisances Removal Acts; and it would seem further, that if the
Medical Officer does report, and the further report of the Surveyor
is obtained, and the owner objects to an order being made, the
Vestries are not bound to make any such order, nor would the
Metropolitan Board have any power to step in, either by its own
volition or on complaint; but that may be open to doubt, as it
depends upon what interpretation is to be put upon the words,
"the local authority have failed to put in force the provisions of
the said Acts."
As to Sir Richard Cross's Acts, the Bill provides that if the
Home Secretary should think fit, he may dispense with the
obligation on the Metropolitan Board to provide accommodation on
or near the site of the demolished house to an extent not exceeding
one half of the persons so displaced, and this provision may apply
to areas already acquired. After the Metropolitan Board has
given notice by advertisement of its intention to acquire any area
no subsequent improvement, or interest created, shall be taken
into consideration in respect to compensation. There is to be but
one arbitration in respect to compensation claimed, and no appeals
unless the compensation awarded amounts to one thousand pounds
or upwards, in which case the claimant or the Board may appeal to
a jury under the Land Clauses Acts. Some of the difficulties
which were presented to the Metropolitan Board in dealing with
larger areas may be in a fair way of removal by the Bill, but the
same cannot be said of the Vestries so long as the power of appeal
to that most unsatisfactory of all tribunals, the Quarter Sessions, is
retained on the one hand, and the power of the owner to require the
Vestry to purchase his property on the other; but whatever may