Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope.
- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Department of Public Health.
- Date:
- [1908]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![tions already exercised by it. The arrangement, however, had certain important advantages.' Firstly, it brought all Local Government work under one Department, so that local authorities when dealing with the Government now do so, with one or two minor exceptions, through one recognised channel. Secondly, it admitted of greater efficiency, owing to the fact that, in the course of dealing on the spot with the sanitary and health conditions of local authorities, this Department has become very intimately acquainted with the local conditions peculiar to each local authority in the Colony and is consequently in a good position to deal sympathetically and in accordance with special local needs with matters of all kinds relating to the administration of the particular local authority. Thirdly, by treating the work of local authorities as one whole, conflicting decisions are obviated and better results and greater expedition are obtainable. And, lastly, a considerable financial saving in the Government administration has been rendered possible. From reports which have reached the Government, the new arrangement appears to have given general satisfaction to local authorities. The Dealing with Bye-Laws. As an example of the effect of the amalgamation, I may allude to the matter of the sanctioning of regulations. Very few of the Acts of Parliament relating to local authorities specifically define their functions, these being in most cases provided for by merely empowering the local authority to frame bye-laws, subject to the sanction of the Governor. It follows that the framing and sanctioning of bye¬ laws is one of the most important matters dealt with by the Government in con¬ nection with Local Government. As such bye-laws may be ultra vires, or un¬ reasonable, or against public policy or defective in scope or drafting and often involve questions requiring the advice of different Departments of the Public Service, more especially of the Law Department and the Public Health Department, it is in many cases necessary to obtain a number of departmental reports and to suggest to the local authority important amendments before a particular set of bye-laws can be submitted to the Governor for his sanction. In the past, very serious, and to local authorities often exasperating, delays have occurred in connection with the sanctioning of bye-laws, and as questions of public health are involved in so large a proportion of them, and as the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony is the Government official who naturally comes into most constant and intimate touch with local authorities, he was usually given the credit of these delays, although nine times out of ten he was in no way connected with them. During the year 1908, there were promulgated by Government 98 batches of regulations framed by Municipalities, 29 batches framed by Village Management- Boards and 12 by Divisional Councils ; or a total of 139 batches, comprising in all 3,339 regulations, many of them being very long and complicated. As the first half of this year fell under the old arrangement, while throughout the second half the Local Government work was amalgamated with the Health Department, this portion of the work affords a good example of the improvement in adminis¬ trative detail rendered possible by the amalgamation. Thus from the 1st of January to the 30th June, 1908, under the old arrangement, only 40 batches, comprising 513 regulations, were promulgated, while from the 1st July to the 31st December, 1908, under the new arrangement, 99 batches, comprising 2, 826 regulations, were promulgated. Moreover, on the 30th June, there were 63 batches of regulations outstanding, 3 of which were ready for promulgation, whereas on the 31st December there were only 35 batches outstanding, and of these 11 were in the act of being promulgated, while of the remaining 24 batches all, except one, were out of the hands of the Department, generally with the different local authorities themselves for the purpose of undergoing further consideration by them. The amount of work connected with local authorities will be evident when their number is remembered. Thus there were in 1908 :— Municipalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] 09 95 Under the Municipal Act No. 45 of 1882 5 Under the old Ordinance No. 9 of 1836. 9 Under special Acts of incorporation. Village Management Boards . . . . . . . . . so Divisional Councils . . . . . . . . . . . . SO , Local Authority under Section 13 of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1897 .. .. .. .. .. 1 Total .. . . . , ,, . , 279](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31482041_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
