The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

THE NBTV PUBLIC /MALTS ACT.

The bill brought in by the Right Hon. Mr. Cowper,
the President of. the Board of Health, and Mr. Massey,
to amend the Public Health of 1848, and to make
further provisions for the local improvement in towns,
bas just been printed. The nee:lmre is an extraordinary
long one, and contains no less than 187 clauses. It is
cot intended to be applied to Ireland or Scotland, nor
to the metropolis.
As the act, if passed, will be one of great social
porance, and will probably cause much discussion in
its progress through parliament, we shall, in order that
our readers mey tkoroughly understand the subject,
give as lucid a summary 83 we can p-ssibly make of the
cumbrous mass of words and the circumlocutory phrase•
01" in which our acts of parliament are couched. The
Public Health Act of 1858 is divided into four parts---
the adoptian ; the constitution, proceeding, and general
powers of local boards ; the special powers which they
will exercise ; and the- general provisions. We shell
treat of each of these divisions in its turn, and we com-
mence with

TXII ADOPTION •l TAUB ACT.
The measure may be adopted eitrher by places having
a known and defined boundary, such as a borough or
district, or by a place the boundary of which hitherto
has not been defined. In the latter case it will be neces-
sary that one-tenth of the ratepayers shall petition the
general board in favour of the adoption of the act, and
after the genuineness of the petition has been tested by
an inquiry on the spot, a boundary for that particular
place will be laid down, and it will come wider the
operation of the act. No place, however, or part of a
place to which the act of 1848 has been applied, and ❑o
part of a borough, can be formed into a separate district
of this character. The modus operandi, however, in the
former C4llO is different. When a place with a defined
boundary wishes to adopt the act a public meeting of the
ratepayers is required to be held, and if at such meeting
a majority of the ratepayers are in favour of adopting
the act, notice of its adoption is to be given to tse
general board by a proper officer specified in the act. The
meeting can, however, only be called upon the requisition
of ten of the ratepayers to the General beard of Health,
and provisions are made for taking a poll of the rate-
payers by ballot if it is demanded by any of the tevvntrs
or ratepayers present at the meeting. Various regula-
tions. are made for taking the poll, the expense of which,
if the act is adopted, is to be defrayed out of the general
district rate, but if it is not, out of the poor rate. A
penalty of three months' imprisonment is enacted for the
forging of voting papers or interrupting the procepis of
polling. An appeal may be made to be signed by a: least
one-tenth of the ratepayers against the adoption of the
act, which the Board of Health may deal with as it thinks
fit, after inquiry into its genuineness and its subject
matter. Due notice of the adoption of the act havirg
been made and published in the London Gazette and the
local newspapers, the act is to come into operation tao
months after the resolution of the ratepayers ; and it
may be well here to mention that all its provisions, or
part only, may be adopted, and the fact of any town or
borough being at present under the operation of the
existing Public Health Act will not prevent it either
adopting the whole of this, or incorporating some of its
provisions with the present act. The costs incurred by
the general board in reference to its adoption—such, we
suppose, as those of the officer making the preliminary
inquiry —are, by the consent cf the Treasury, to become
a charge on the general district rates, and to be payable
by annual instalments which shall not exceed five in
nenaber.

GENERAL APPLICATION or THI AST.
In all cases (supposing the act to be adopted) in which
the returns of the registrar general shall show that the
number of deaths annually bears a proportion exceeding
25 to the 1,000 inhabitants, such proportion beiug calcu-
lated upon an average of seven years, a superinteeding
inspector is to be sent down to inquire into the general
sanitary condition of the inhabitauts, inta the sewerage,
drainage, supply of water, and other matters, precisely
as was the case with reference to the existing act, and
upon the receipt of his report the general board shall
issue a provisional order applying the Act, and shall
take the necessary steps for confirming such order by a
separate act of Parliament. The provieioniii with refe-
rence to the adoption of the act occupy 40 clauses. We
shall now proceed to the
CONSTITUTION, PROCEIIIINGS, AND dENERAL POWERS OP
LOCAL BOARDS OF HEALTH.
In boroughs or corporate places, the town council will
be, as now, the local board ; in districts to which the
existing act applies no change will be made in the
governing body ; in towns in which there are improve
went commissioners elected by the ratepayers the com-
missioners will form the local board ; and in other places
in which the act is applied there will be an elective
board, the qualification for a member being a residence
within seven miles, combined with the possession of a
real or personal estate to the value of 5001., or a ratal to
the poor of 151. per annum. The local board in such
places not to consist of more than 18, or less than 9
persons. The elective members of any lecal board shall,
as soon as conveniently may be after their first election,
be divided by ballot into three classes, each class to
be as nearly as may be equal in numbers ; and the offices
of the first class shall be vacated on the day after the
expiration of the first year from the date of their electioe,
the offices of the second class shall be vacated on the
anoti
day after the expiration of toe second year from
date as aforesaid, and the offices of the third
fcl
tahse third
be vacated on the day after the expiration o
year from such date as aforesaid. All members
fchosen
to fill the vacated offices shall bold their tfi
terns of three years, and no longer, and in every instance
the offices of retiring members shall be supplied by an
equal number of newly elected members, The local
board is to meet once a month, but not in any place where
spirituous liquors are sold, and not less than three
members are required to be present at the commence-
ment and close of the business. There are various other
regulations respecting the conducting of business by the
local board—the order of their pnceedings, the choice
of chairman, and other matters, but of no publio interest.
A very useful provision is also made, preventing any
one holding a contract with, or having any interest in,
work done for the local board. Howling shares in a
water or gas company, or being a party to the sale or
lease ei land, or the loan of money, do not necessitate the
vacati,n of a seat at the board. The penalty for a
disqualified person acting is 50L A similar machinery
as that we have already described is to be provided for
the addition of adjoining districts to a place in which a
local board is then constituted, and if added, the local
board will have equal power to erect works in such
place:
THE GENERAL AND SPICIAL POWERS OF LOCAL BOARDS.
The local board will have power to appoint an officer
of health, a surveyor, inspector of nuisances, clerk,
treasurer, and collectors, the whole of whom they will
have power to remove at pleasure, with the exception of
the officer of health, whose removal and appointment is
subject to the approval of the general board. The special
powers of local boards will be very large. They refer to
the sewerage and cleansing of towns, the construction
and mauageoaent of streets sad roads, markets and fair I
the water supply, lighting, management of slaughter.
houses, providing of pleasure grounds and baths and
wash-houses. There is also an important provision which
provides for the incorporation of the provisions of the
Consolidation Clauses Act (Police and Towns Improve-

meats of 1847) with the present. The clauses relating
to this division of the act are 42 in number.
SEWERAGE.
The local board are to have the construction and
management of all existing and future sewers within
their district, together with all buildings, works, mate-
rials, and things belonging or appertaining thereto.
The following, however, are excepted from their con-
trol :—Sewers made by any person for his own profit or
use, or by any company for the profit of the Bharat-Adders
—and sewers made and used for the purpose of draining,
irrigating, or otherwise improving land under any local
or private act of Parliament.
Very large powers are given in respect to the repair
and construction of new sewers, it being enjoined on the
local board to drain the district effectually, and all
sewers, drains, and pipes shall be so constructed and
kept as not to create a nuisance or be injurious to health.
If by the eternise of any of the above powers any person
is deprived of the lawful use of any sewerlor drain the local
board shall provide for his use some other sewerordrainas
effectual as that of the use of which he is so deprived.
Penalties will be inflicted upon persons for making un-
authorised sewers, and very minute directions are given
for the draining of new houses. A proper map is to be
provided showing the whole system of drainage in eaoh
district.

____
In every district the following works shall be done
with respect to scavenging :—All streets, together with
the foot pavements thereof, shall be properly cleansed
and watered ; all roads shall be properly cleansed, and the
whole or any part of such roads may, in the discretilen
of the local board, be watered. All dust, ashes. and
rubbish shall be carried away from the premises of the
inhabitants ; with various other provisions. The work,
of course, will be executed by contract, and a penalty is
enacted for unauthorised scavenging. Bye-laws will be
made by the local board for the prevention of nuisances
arising from snow, filth, dust, ashes, and rubbish within
their district, or from the keeping of animals, and they
may annex reasonable penalties for the breach of such
bye-laws. After the date of the constitution of any
district the business of a blood-boiler, bone-boiler, or
bone-burner, fellmonger, slaughterer of animals of way
description not intended for human food, soap-boiler,
tallow-melter, tripe-boiler, manufacturer of chemical
products causing noxioni or offensive effluvia, or other
noxious or offensive business, trade, or manufacture, may
not, without the consent of the local board, be established
within the district ; and whosoever offends against this
enactment shall incur for each offence a penalty not
exceeding 403. for each day during which the offence is
continued. . .

vv
The provisions with respect to streets are just as one
would naturally expect, vesting in the local board the
paving and lighting, placing of crossing poste, fences,
and generally providing for the repair and efficient con-
dition of the public highways. Heavy penalties are
enacted for displacing paving stones, &c., without the
consent of the local board, and agreements may be made
in regard to the public roads by which the tells may be

passed to the board.
The incorporation of the Towns' Police Clauses Act
may be with respect to fires, places of public resort,
arrangement of hackney carriages, and the public bath-
ing, and all the penalties imposed by that act shall be
leviable under this. In like manner the incorporation
of the Towns' Improvement Act may be with respect to
naming the streets and numbering the houses; improving
the line of the streets and resanving obstructions; ruinous
or dangerous buildings; and also with respect to taking
precautions during the construction and repair of the
sewers, streets, and houses ; the prevention of smoke,
and the establishment of public clocks.

MARKETS AND r.s.ras.
The local board shall have the power to provide a
market-place, and construct a market-house and other
conveniences, for the purpose of holding markets and
fairs ; to provide houses and places for weighing carts
to make convenient approaches to such market or fair ;
to provide all such matters and things as may be neoes.
sary for the convenient use of such market or fair; to
purchase or take on lease land for any of the foregoing
purposes; to take stallages, rents, and tolls in respect of
the use by any person of such market-house ; but no
market or fair shall be established in pursuance of this
section so as to interfere with any rights, powers, or

privileges enjoyed within the district by any person,
chartered joint-stock or incorporated company, without
his or their consent.

SUPPLY OP WATER.

All public wells, pumps, conduits, or other works lied
for the gratuitous supply of water to the inhabitants of
the district shall vest in and be under the control of the
local board, which may, for the gratuitous use of the
inhabitants of the district, construct any number of new
wells or pumps, or purchase by agreement the surrender
of any lease of existing wells, pumps, or works for
supplying water the reversion of which is now ♦ested in
the corporation of a borough, or in any local board or
commissioners for public purposes; and may cause a
supply of water to be furnished to any public baths or
wash houses ; water to be provided in sufficient quan-
tities for flushing the sewers and drains, for putting oat
fires, for cleansing and watering the streets, and for
other public purposes. The local board. of health may
provide their district with such a supply of water as may
be proper and sufficient.
Various provisions are inserted enacting penalties
against fouling water sr damaging the works of any of
the plugs or cocks. Persons fouling the water with gas
are liable to a penalty of 2001 and 201. daily during the
continuance of the offence. N.Ne3 need only add upon this
part that with regard to slaughter houses all the pro-
visions in the existing act are transferred to this.