c. 61, without

14 & 15 Vict. granted by any quarter sessions of the peace under the notice to ves- provisions of the Act of the session holden in the fourtry or district teenth and fifteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter sixty

board.

Vestries and district boards to

appoint medical

officers of health.

Appointment of

one (the Metropolitan Market Act, 1851,) (h), one month's previous notice of the intention to apply for such licence shall be given to the vestry or district board of the parish or district in which such place is situate, to the intent that such vestry or district board, if they think fit, may show cause against the grant of such licence.]

CXXXII. Every vestry and district board shall from time to time appoint one or more legally qualified medical practitioner or practitioners of skill and experience to inspect and report periodically upon the sanitary condition of their parish or 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, and to take cognizance 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 dis eases, and also to point out the most efficient modes for the ventilation of churches, chapels, schools, lodging houses, and other public edifices within the parish or district, and to perform any other duties of a like nature which may be required of him or them; and such persons shall be called "medical officers of health;" and it shall be lawful for the vestry or board to pay to every such officer such salary as they think fit, and also to remove any such officer at the pleasure of such vestry or board.

CXXXIII. Every vestry and district board shall no

(h) The 14 & 15 Vict. c. 61, was repealed by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 135, (Loc. & Per.) which, by sect. 35, also provided that before licences were granted for slaughter-houses notice should be given to the vestry or district board.

nuisances(i).

minate and appoint such number of persons to be in- inspectors of spectors of nuisances in their parish or district as the vestry or board may think fit; and the inspectors of nuisances shall superintend and enforce the due execution of all duties to be performed by the scavengers employed or contracted with under this Act, and report to the vestry or district board the existence of any nuisances; and the vestry or board shall require every such inspector to provide and keep a book in which shall be entered all complaints made by any inhabitant of the parish or district of any infringement of the provisions of this Act, or of any byelaws made thereunder, or of nuisances; and every such inspector shall forthwith inquire into the truth or otherwise of such complaints, and report upon the same to the vestry or board at their next meeting; and such report, and the order of the vestry or board thereon, shall be entered in a book, which shall be kept at their office, and shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection of any inhabitant of the parish or district; and it shall be the duty of such inspector, subject to the direction of the vestry or board, to make complaints before any justices, and take legal proceedings for the punishment of any person for any offence under this Act or any such byelaws.

district

authorities to

CXXXIV. Every vestry and district board under this Vestries and Act shall execute, within their respective parish or dis- boards to be trict, all the duties and powers exerciseable under the the local Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1848, execute the and the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act, 1849, by any commissioners or other body, or any Acts (k).

(i) See as to the appointment of sanitary inspectors under the Nuisances Removal Amendment Act, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, 8. 9. By the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, s. 91, post, penalties are imposed for keeping swine in unfit places, or in which the breeding, &c. may create a nuisance or be injurious to health.

(k) The Nuisances Removal Act, now in force, is the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, as amended by 23 & 24Vict. c. 77, post, Appendix.

Nuisance

Removal

Main sewers vested in the

officers having under any Act powers of cleansing, and shall be the local authority to execute any Act passed or to be passed in the present session, amending or repealing the said Acts or either of them.

Duties and Powers of Metropolitan Board of Works (a).

CXXXV. The sewers mentioned in schedule (D.) to metropolitan this Act, being the main sewers now vested in the com

(a) The metropolitan board have additional duties cast upon them by other Acts of parliament. The Metropolitan Buildings Act, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 122, vests in them important functions with regard to the appointment, fees, and returns of district surveyors, and applications respecting the construction of buildings to which the rules of the Act are inapplicable, and other matters. The sections which more especially relate to their powers and duties are the 26th, relative to projections; the 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, and 37th, concerning district surveyors; and the 49th, 50th, and 77th, as to fees; the 52nd, 53rd, and 54th, as to returns by those officers; the 55th and following sections down to the 64th inclusive, giving the board certain special powers with relation to the alteration of rules of construction in certain cases, and for other objects; the 65th, 66th, 67th, and 68th, as to the expenses of carrying the Act into execution, and the 114th as to employing or compensating certain officers who had been employed in the office of metropolitan buildings. See the Act itself, and the Amending Acts, the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 52, and the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 87, post, Appendix. Certain powers are also conferred upon the board by the 22 & 23 Vict. c. 66, for regulating measures used in sales of gas, the Metropolis Gas Act, 1860, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 125, and the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 79, to amend the Metropolis Gas Act, and more especially by the lastnamed Act, the powers conferred on justices of the peace by the 22 & 23 Vict. c. 66, as amended by the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 146, are, by sect. 1, so far as relates to the metropolis, transferred to the metropolitan board. The powers so transferred are contained in the 22 & 23 Vict. c. 66, s. 4, relative to providing copies of the models of gas holders, and the appointment of inspectors, and the 22nd section concerning appeals against the acts or decisions of inspectors of meters. See the several Acts relating to this subject in the Appendix, post. By the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 66, intituled "An Act for the Safe Keeping of Petroleum," the metropolitan board and the vestries and district boards are (except within the city) the local authority for granting licences for keeping more than the

works and

board to

missioners of sewers of the city of London and in the board of metropolitan commissioners of sewers respectively (b), power to such with the walls, defences, banks, outlets, sluices, flaps, make sewers. penstocks, gullies, grates, works, and things thereunto belonging, and the materials thereof, with all rights of way and passage used and enjoyed by such commissioners respectively over and to such sewers, works, and things, and all other rights concerning or incident to such sewers, works, and things, shall be vested in the metropolitan board of works, and such board shall make (c) such sewers and works as they may think necessary for preventing all or any part of the sewage (d) within the metropolis from flowing or passing into the river Thames in or near the metropolis, and shall cause such sewers and works to be completed on or before the 31st day of December, 1860 (e), and shall also make all such other sewers and works, and such diversions or alterations of any existing sewers or works vested in them under this Act, as they may from time to time think necessary for the effectual sewerage and drainage of the metropolis, and shall discontinue, close up, or destroy such sewers for the time being vested in them

quantities of petroleum prescribed by the Act within a certain distance of dwelling houses and warehouses. And by the 25 & 26 Vict. c. 93, the board are the body appointed by the Act to carry out the Thames embankment. See that and the previous Act to continue the coal and wine duties, the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 42, in the Appendix, post.

(b) See note (a) to sect. 68, ante.

(c) See 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, s. 1, post, by which the works which the board are required to make are described as "the necessary sewers and works for the improvement of the main drainage of the metropolis, and for preventing, as far as may be practicable, the sewage of the metropolis from passing into the Thames within the metropolis." See ss. 24 & 25 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, post, as to formation and maintenance of bridges, arches, culverts, &c.

(d) See definition of the word "sewage" in the 32nd section of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, for the purification of the Thames and main drainage of the metropolis, post.

(e) Extended by sect. 26 of 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, as explained by s. 26 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, to 31st December, 1863.

under this Act, as they may deem unnecessary, and such board shall from time to time repair and maintain the sewers so vested in them, or such of them as may not be discontinued, closed up, or destroyed as aforesaid; and for the purposes aforesaid such board shall have full power and authority to carry any such sewers or works through, across, or under any turnpike road (g) or any street (h) or place laid out as or intended for a street, as well beyond as within the limits of the metropolis, or through or under any cellar or vault under the carriageway or pavement of any street and into, through, or under any lands whatsoever (i) within or beyond the said limits, making compensation (k) for any damage

(g) See sect. 33 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, post, providing for notice before breaking up turnpike roads and imposing other conditions.

(h) See interpretation of word "street," sect. 250, post. See express power to metropolitan board to stop up streets, roads, or ways, during execution of works, 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, s. 21, post.

(2) The powers conferred by this section do not authorize the metropolitan board of works to construct any works on the soil or bed of the Thames. That power is however given by the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104 (Main Drainage Act), sect. 2, post, but subject to the condition that the approval of the admiralty should have been previously obtained as required by sect. 27 of the same Act. Where therefore the metropolitan board had executed works for carrying a sewer into the river, by which the plaintiff's ship was damaged, and the approval of the admiralty had not been obtained, the board were held liable to an action for obstructing the navigation of the river; Brownlow v. The Metropolitan Board of Works and another, 31 L. J. (N. S.) C. P. 140. See ss. 24 & 25 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, post, as to communications between lands through which works are carried; the provisions contained in ss. 34 & 35 of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 102, post, as to notices and other requirements where works will affect any railway or canal; ss. 27 & 28 of the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, post, requiring approval of works under that Act by the admiralty and conservators of the Thames; and sect. 30, regulating works under or over the river Lea.

(k) Under this provision boards and vestries are empowered to carry their sewers through any lands, &c, whatsoever, on the sole condition of making compensation, and they are not com