CHAPTER VIII. THE PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891. THIS Act applies to the administrative county of London, and furnishes the metropolitan area, under the jurisdiction of the London County Council, with a comprehensive sanitary code. Throughout such area it regulates sanitary matters, thus doing for London what the Public Health Act of 1875 does for the rest of England and Wales. Like that Act, it is a consolidating statute, repealing with amendments many Acts relating to public health formerly in force in the Metropolis. The parishes and districts which are included in the metropolitan area, in addition to the City, are enumerated in the Schedules to the Metropolis Management Act of 1855. This chapter is divided into three parts: P. Part 1.- Definitions of Terms. Part 2.-Authorities for the Execution of this Act. Part 3.-Sanitary Matters. A. Nuisances. B. Keeping swine. C. Offensive trades. D. Smoke consumption. E. Workshops and bakehouses. F. Dairies. G. Removal of refuse. M H. Water-closets, &c. J. Provisions as to water. L. Houses let in lodgings. M. Tents and vans. N. Underground rooms. ᏢᎪᎡᎢ 1. Definitions of Terms. "London" means the administrative county of London. "County Council" means the London County Council. "Street" includes any highway, and any public bridge, and any road, lane, footway, square, court, alley, or passage, whether thoroughfare or not, and whether or not there are houses in such street. NOTE.-The words in italics do not occur in "the Act' (p. 8). Nor do they fulfil the intention for which they were obviously inserted, viz., to settle the difficulty in determining whether a place in which there are no buildings, or only a limited number, is a street or not. For this still is a question of fact, which can only be determined by the circumstances of the particular case. (Eccles v. Wirral Union, 16 Q. B. D. 107.) It was held that a country lane of which the herbage may be let was a street within sect. 149 of "the Act." (Coverdale v. Charlton, 4 Q. B. D. 104.) Again, after a place has been held to be a street, whether it has become a new street or not is a question of fact. "Premises" includes messuages, buildings, lands, easements, and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or inclosed, whether built on or not, and whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority. "House" includes schools, also factories and other buildings in which persons are employed. "Building and House" respectively include the curtilage of a building or house, and include a building or house wholly or partly erected under statutory authority. NOTE.-The term building has a wider signification than house. A consecrated church of the Established Church of England may be held to be a house for the purpose of defining a building line (The Corporation of Folkestone v. Woodward, L. R. 15 Eq. 159), but not for the purpose of rendering it liable for paving expenses. (Wright v. Ingle, 16 Q. B. D. 379.) "Bakehouse" means any place in which are baked bread, biscuits, or confectionery, from the baking or selling of which a profit is derived. "Vessel" includes a boat and every description of vessel used in navigation. "House refuse" means ashes, cinders, breeze, rubbish, night-soil, and filth, but does not include trade refuse. "Trade refuse means the refuse of any trade, manufacture, or business, or of any building materials. "Street refuse" means dust, dirt, rubbish, mud, roadscrapings, ice, snow, and filth. "Owner," vide p. 7. "Rack-rent," vide pp. 7 and 8. "Cattle" includes sheep, goats, and swine. "Source of water supply" means any stream, reservoir, aqueduct, pond, well, tank, cistern, pump, fountain, or other work or means for the supply of water, whether actually used or capable of being used for the supply of water or not. NOTE.-The expression cistern includes a water-butt. "Day" means the period between six o'clock in the morning and the succeeding nine o'clock in the evening. NOTE. This is a wider definition of day-time than is given in any of the Public Health Acts. "Master means in the case of a building or part of a building, a person in occupation of or having the charge, management, or control of the building, or part of the building, and in the case of a house, the whole of which is let cut in separate tenements, or in the case of a lodginghouse, the whole of which is let to lodgers, includes the person receiving the rent payable by the tenants or lodgers, either on his own account or as the agent of another person, and in the case of a vessel means the master or other in charge thereof. (Sect. 141.) person PART 2. Authorities for the execution of this Act. The S. A. for the execution of this Act shall be as follows: A In the City of London, the commissioners of sewers, and B. In each of the parishes mentioned in Schedule (A) to the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, as amended by the Metropolis Management Amendment Act, 1885, and the Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act, 1887, other than Woolwich, the vestry of the parish, and C. In each of the districts mentioned in Schedule (B) to the same Act, as so amended, the district board for the district, and D. In the parish of Woolwich the local board of health, and E. In any place mentioned in Schedule (C) to the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, the board of guardians for such place, or for any parish or poor law union of which it forms part, or if there is no such board of guardians, the overseers of the poor for such place, or for the parish in which it is situate. (Sect. 99.) Power of County Council to prosecute on default of S. A. The County Council, on it being proved to their satisfaction that any S. A. have made default in doing their duty under this Act with respect to the removal of any nuisance, the institution of any proceedings, or the enforcement of any bye-law, may institute any proceeding and do any act which the authority might have instituted, or done for that purpose, and shall be entitled to recover from the S. A. in default all such expenses in and about the said proceeding or act as the County Council incur, and are not recovered from any other person, and have not been incurred in any unsuccessful proceeding. (Sect. 100.) NOTE. These expenses can be recovered summarily without the sanction of the L. G. B, |