The London health laws : a manual of the law affecting the housing and sanitary condition of Londoners, with special reference to the dwellings of the poor / issued by the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor.

Date:: 1894

Credit: The London health laws : a manual of the law affecting the housing and sanitary condition of Londoners, with special reference to the dwellings of the poor / issued by the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$view of the important powers exercised by these bodies, and of the advantage which may accrue from their members being recruited from a larger fiekl than liitherto, a short note explaining the qnalifications and method of election of vestrymen is there added. The duties and powers of the local authority are very extensive, and will frequently b3 referred to in these pages. There can be no doubt that many of the most important duties imposed upon the vestries have not hitherto been adequately performed, and this is particu- larly the case with regard to what may be called their regulating powers. Too ofteu tliey act as if what is im- posed on them as an absolute duty was left to their unfettered and not too active discretion. Examples of the many occasions on which the local authority is charged with the duty of supervision and interference will be found hereafter under the heading of the Public Health Act {see chap, ii., p. 18). It will be noticed that, for the most part, the law enjoin- ing interference is peremptory, and that in the inspectors of nuisances, whom tlie local authorities are entitled to appoint in any numbers they think fit, officers are provided whose declared duty it is to bring to the notice of their employers the departures from the law with which tliose employers are empowered to deal. It is not necessary to inquire iuto the question as to why this duty is in many cases not performed or inade- quately performed ; but the slightest acquaintance with the actual condition of many crowded localities is sufficient to prove the fact that there is frequently either negligence or inability to give full effect to the law. It is possible to stimulate the activity of the local authorities in various ways. In many cases friendly representations made to the officials may suffice. In other eases it will be well to take t])e initiative conferred by the law, and for individuals to prefer complaints in person io the vestry acting as a regularly constituted authority bound to take action upon due representations being niade.^ Perhaps the most effective method of all by which individuals interested in the due enforcement of 1 See cases under the Public Health Act, 1891, p. 26.$