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Every winter, if there is snow, there is an immediate demand for men to sweep it away; and sometimes hundreds are so employed. The duties of the Vestries for cleaning streets are not unimportant, therefore, to the almoner. They have to cause any footway within their parish to be 'scraped, swept, and cleaned, in such manner and at such times as they think fit.' This, however, is not to relieve occupiers from the liability of cleansing any part of the footways. For the sweeping and cleansing of streets the Vestries have to provide, and for collecting and removing all dirt, ashes, rubbish, ice, snow, and filth.

If ashpits.

The Vestries arrange also to send scavengers at fixed times to Cleansing clear ashpits. An almoner may be able to see that this is done. there is any neglect, complaint may be made to the inspector of nuisances. The Vestry have also to arrange for the cleansing and emptying of privies and cesspools, sewers and drains.

crossings.

The propriety of giving pence to crossing sweepers is sometimes Cleansing gravely discussed; and it may therefore be noted that Vestries may singly, or in conjunction with other Vestries, appoint and pay suitable persons to cleanse and sweep crossings for passengers, and 'to keep them properly cleansed and swept daily.' These persons are to be 'distinguished by their Dress or some distinctive Mark as Public Servants.' No Vestry has, we believe, availed itself of this

enactment.

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The Vestries and District Boards are surveyors of highways' under the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855, and may proceed against persons for obstructions of public ways.

(2) The Medical Officer of Health, the Inspector of Nuisances, and the Public Analyst.—The medical officers employed by the Guardians have to deal with cases of sickness. The duties of the medical officer of health, who is appointed by the Vestry, are thus set down: 'To inspect and report periodically* upon the sanitary condition of the district; to ascertain the existence of diseases, more especially epidemics increasing the rate of mortality, and to point out the existence of any nuisance or other local causes which are likely to originate and maintain such diseases and injuriously affect the health of the inhabitants; to take cognisance of the fact of the existence of any contagious or epidemic diseases, and to point out the most efficacious mode of checking or preventing the spread of such diseases.' He has also to point out the most efficient modes of ventilating chapels, schools, lodging-houses, and other public edifices in the district. He reports to the Vestry annually. His salary is fixed by them, and he is removable at their pleasure.. There may be one or more medical officers of health.

Obstrucpublic ways.

tions of

Duties of the

Medical

Officer of

Health.

Besides the medical officer are one or more inspectors of Duties of nuisances, who have to superintend and enforce the execution of inspectors of

* Nuisances Removal Act (18 & 19 Viet., c. 121), s. 8.

nuisances.

Public
Analyists.

Nuisances and their removal.

all duties to be performed by the scavengers; to inspect meat, fruit, &c., exposed for sale, lest it be unfit for food; to report to the Vestry the existence of any nuisances; to keep a book 'in which shall be entered all complaints made by any inhabitant of any infringement of the provisions of this Act,† or of any bye-laws made thereunder, or of nuisances'; to inquire as to the truth of the complaints, and to report to the Vestry; and to take any legal proceedings that may rise out of the Act.

To one or other of these officers the almoner should complain in writing, if he comes across evils or defects which come within their jurisdiction. In some districts he may find that there is a register of all houses below a certain size, with particulars as to the size of the rooms, &c. By endeavouring to have the law enforced in cases of overcrowding, defective sanitation, and other similar matters, the almoner can do acts of charity of untold value. The law is complete enough. But the poor are too busy and too accustomed to bad sanitation to care about change; and the medical officers have large districts and often an insufficient staff.

Under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act (38 & 39 Vict. c. 63) (1875), Vestries and District Boards can appoint, subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, one or more persons possessing competent knowledge, skill and experience, as analysts of all articles of food and drugs sold within the district. Any medical officer of health, inspector of nuisances, or inspector of weights and measures, or any inspector of a market, or any police constable under the direction and at the cost of the local authority, may procure any sample of food or drugs. Any purchaser of an article of food or of a drug in any place where there is an analyst appointed under the Act, may, on payment to him of a sum not exceeding ten shillings and sixpence, have the article analysed, and receive a certificate from the analyst.

'The person purchasing any article with the intention of submitting the same to analysis shall, after the purchase shall have been completed, forthwith notify to the seller, or his agent, selling the article his intention to have the same analysed by the public analyst, and shall offer to divide the article into three parts to be then and there separated, and each part to be marked and sealed, or fastened up in such manner as its nature will permit, and shall, if required to do so, proceed accordingly, and shall deliver one of the parts to the seller or his agent. He shall afterwards retain one of the said parts for future comparison, and submit the third part, if he deems it right to have the article analysed, to the analyst.'

(3) Abatement of Nuisances.-A nuisance includes any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; any pool, ditch, gutter, water-course, privy, &c., drain or ashpit, so foul as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; or any such accumula

*26 & 27 Vict., c. 117 (1863).

† 18 & 19 Vict., c. 120. Nuisances Removal Act (18 & 19 Vict., c. 121), s. 8 (1855).

tion or deposit.' Any aggrieved person, the sanitary inspector, or any paid officer of the Vestry, two or more householders, the relieving officer, or any constable, may give notice of it to the Vestry. The Vestry also may take cognisance of any such nuisance, after entry made, as provided by the Nuisances Removal Act. If the nuisance is in a common lodging-house, the inspector of such houses may complain. The Vestry may then complain to a magistrate, and he may make an order for its abatement or discontinuance and prohibition, and for costs. He may also order works to be undertaken to prevent its recurrence, and if the house is unfit for human habitation in consequence of it, he may prohibit its use until it is rendered and declared by him to be habitable.

By a later Act* any inhabitant of the parish or place may complain to a justice, and the person by whose 'act, default, or permission, or sufferance the nuisance arises,' or if he cannot be found, the owner, may be summoned. And after inquiry as to the facts by the Vestry, the justice may authorise any constable or other person to remove or abate the nuisance, charging the cost to the offender.

(4) Overcrowding.-If the medical officer certifies that a house is Overcrowdso overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the health of the invention. inhabitants, and they consist of more than one family, the Vestry may take proceedings, and the justices may impose a penalty of 40s. 'on the person permitting such overcrowding.'+ By the Public Health Act of 1866 such overcrowding is declared to be a 'nuisance,' and it is set down as the duty of the Vestry, whether by itself or by its officers, to make inspection of the district from time to time to ascertain what nuisances exist, and to enforce the provisions to abate them.‡

(5) Registration of Tenement Houses.-Probably the most effective means of ensuring proper sanitary arrangements in the dwellings of a large class of the poor is to apply the 35th section of the Sanitary Act of 1866. By that section the Vestry may on application to the Local Government Board make regulations (1) for fixing the number of persons who may occupy a house, or part of a house, which is let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family (a tenement house); (2) for the registration of houses thus let or occupied as lodgings; (3) for the inspection of such houses, and the keeping the same in a cleanly and wholesome state; (4) for enforcing therein the provision of privy accommodation, and other appliances and means of cleanliness in proportion to the number of lodgings and occupiers, and the cleansing and ventilation of the common passages and staircases;

23 & 24 Vict., c. 77 (1860).

† 18 & 19 Vict., c. 121, s. 29 (1855). 29 & 30 Vict., c. 90, s. 20 (1866).

Registration

of tenement houses and

bye-laws for agement.

their man

Approved

bye-laws for tenement

house,

St. Georgein-the-East.

(5) for the cleansing and lime-whiting at stated times of such premises.' *

The Local Government Board have published Model Bye-laws for tenement houses, as they have also for the cleansing of footways, removal of refuse, &c.; the prevention of nuisances arising from snow, filth, &c.; for the management of common lodging-houses, and so forth.t The Vestry of St. George-in-the-East have this year adopted regulations for tenement houses. It is a very poor district, and the regulations show how far the Vestry considered it advisable to go. They may be taken to represent a minimum standard. We print them as they stand :—

APPROVED BYE-LAWS FOR THE REGULATION OF HOUSES LET IN

LODGINGS.

Regulations for houses or parts of houses which are let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family, made by the Vestry of the parish of St. George-in-the-East, in the County of London, under and in pursuance of 'The Sanitary Act,' 1866, section 35, and the 'Sanitary Law Amendment Act, 1874.'

Interpretation of Terms.

In these regulations the following words and expressions shall have the meanings hereinafter respectively assigned to them, unless the context otherwise requires; that is to say

Registered House.'-A house let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family and duly registered by the Vestry.

Landlord.-Any person receiving the rent of a registered house from the holder, or any lodger on his own account, or as trustee or agent for any other person, or as Receiver or Sequestrator appointed by the High Court of Justice, or under any order of the Court, or who would receive the same if the property were let to a tenant or tenants.

'Holder.'-The occupier of a registered house; or the person liable to pay the rent to the landlord; or the rent receiver or his appointed agent, when the whole house is let in tenements.

'Lodger.'-A person to whom any room or rooms in a registered house may have been let as a lodging, or for his use and occupation.

'Vestry.'-The Vestry of the parish of St. George in the East being the Nuisance Authority' for the parish, under the 'Sanitary Act, 1866.'

Medical Officer of Health.'-Any person appointed by the Vestry under the provisions of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855,' to the office of Medical Officer of Health.

·

'Inspector.'-Any person appointed by the Vestry to be an Inspector of Registered houses.

Office.'-The Vestry Hall, Cable Street, E., where all notices required to be given under the Regulations must be addressed.

Registration.

1. Any house or part of a house let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family, may be registered by the Vestry at its discretion, and any

* By section 90 of the Public Health Act, 1875, the declaration of the Local Government Board was required to the effect that bye-laws in regard to lodginghouses should be in force in the district of the sanitary authority before that authority could make and apply them. But, by the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885, this declaration is no longer necessary. 'Every sanitary authority shall have power to make bye-laws for the matters specified in section 90.'

† See Report of the Local Government Board, 1877-8, and others.

house so registered, hereinafter referred to as a 'registered house,' shall continue to be registered until otherwise ordered by the Vestry, notwithstanding any change in the ownership or tenancy thereof, if the house continue to be let in lodgings. Fourteen days at least previous to such registration a notice shall be served upon the premises and on the landlord, and after the expiration of such notice, the house shall be so registered, and these regulations shall come into force.

Number of Lodgers.

2. The holder of a registered house shall not knowingly suffer a greater number of persons to occupy any room in such house, nor shall a lodger suffer any room under his control to be occupied by a greater number of persons than will allow of air-space for each person according to the following rules:"The minimum space for each adult in any room occupied as a sleeping-room, whether used exclusively for that purpose, or as a living and sleeping-room combined, shall be 300 cubic feet of free air space. In fixing the number of persons that may lawfully occupy any room, two children under the age of 12 years may be counted as one adult.'

Separation of the Sexes.

3. The holder of a registered house, and any lodger therein, shall not suffer more than two persons of different sexes, unless children living with their parents, to occupy the same sleeping-room.

Drainage.

4. The landlord of a registered house shall keep all drains and drainage apparatus in proper working order and good sanitary condition.

Privy Accommodation.

5. The landlord of a registered house shall provide and maintain privy accommodation in the proportion of one properly-constructed water-closet for every 18 adults (two children under 12 years of age to be counted as one adult) lawfully occupying the house.*

The holder of a registered house shall cause every water-closet to be ventilated and kept in a clean and wholesome condition.

Water Supply.

6. The landlord of a registered house shall provide a sufficient supply of water for the use of the lodgers therein.

The holder of a registered house shall cause every cistern in such house, which is not in the exclusive use of any lodger, to be kept covered, and to be cleansed at least once every two months, or as often as may be necessary, and shall exercise due care to preserve the water from contamination.

A lodger having the exclusive use of a cistern in a registered house shall cause such cistern to be kept covered, and to be cleansed once at least in every two months, or as often as may be necessary, and shall exercise due care to preserve the water from contamination.†

Ash-pit.

7. A holder of a registered house, or a lodger or other person, shall not throw any filth or wet refuse into any ash-pit.

Cleanliness and Ventilation.

8. The landlord of a registered house shall cause the walls and ceilings of every room, and of the common passages, staircases, water-closets, and outhouses

* Every water-closet must be provided with all requisite water-supply apparatus, and with a sufficient supply of water so as effectually to cleanse the same, and be maintained in good order. (18 & 19 Vict., c. 120, s. 81.)

† Every cistern or other receptacle for water, and every closet, soilpan, and private bath which shall be supplied with water by any company, shall be so constructed and used as effectually to prevent the waste, misuse, or undue consumption of water, and the flow or return of foul air or other noisome or impure matter into the mains or pipes of the company, or into any pipes connected or communicating therewith. (15 & 16 Vict., c. 84, s. 23.)

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