HH62/2/RENFRE/69

Transcription

[Page] 68

FOOD AND DRUGS ACTS.

The administration of the Food and Drugs Acts is at present in
the hands of the County Police. I do not propose to relieve them
of this responsibility for a couple of years - until, indeed, we have
fairly overtaken the arrears of purely sanitary work which have
descended to us.

PROSECUTIONS.

I found it necessary to advise that 21 prosecutions should be
entered upon during the year; that these were justifiable and neces-
sary is sufficiently indicated by the fact that they were in every case
successful, and that rarely was any serious defence offered. Nineteen
arose out of cases occurring in the First District. In one case, pour
encourager les autres, a woman was prosecuted for having, after
repeated warnings, allowed a child while in an infectious condition
from scarlet fever, to run about the street at Inkermann. In another
case the offence was that of making a deposit of decaying vegetable
matter, of which the people in the neighbourhood deeply complained,
at Cathcart. The matter of the diseased carcases has already been
referred to. The other cases had reference to insanitary property.
Four houses was closed as unfit for human habitation - one at Barr-
head and three at Elderslie. In some other cases the Sheriff's decrees
were for the almost entire reconstruction of houses certified by me to
be unfit for human habitation, as at Barrhead. And in cases at
Neilston, Barrhead, and Elderslie, orders were granted for the repair
and alteration of insanitary property.
In the Second District cases of insanitary property at Lochwinnoch
and Bridge-of-Weir were dealt with before the sheriff.
Unless these prosecutions had been undertaken the work of the
department would simply have stagnated. People appear to have
been accustomed in the past to trifle with and ignore the require-
ments of the Local Authorities; in most of the cases above referred
to, the respondents, while admitting their default, expressed them-
selves surprised that summonses had been taken out against them;
and even after we had obtained decree against them, we have often
had difficulty in obtaining its fulfilment - having shown reluctance to
proceed against the defaulters for penalties. Indeed, from a politic
desire to avoid the reputation which attaches to the proverbial 'new
broom,' I had endeavoured to reduce the legal expenses in connection

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with these cases to a minimum. This policy may have been success-
ful in its main object, but I have found that it may be carried too far;
and in future I intend to let the law follow its natural course.

THE DETAIL WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.

1830 Visits of inspection, under the Public Health Act, were made
by the Chief and Assistant Sanitary Inspectors in the First District.
230 nuisances were dealt with, of which 168 are reported as abated.
I have seen reports in which it has been stated that the whole of the
nuisances dealt with during a particular period have been abated.
Such reports rise to the level of fiction. For, in the first place, there
must always be, at any given date, a certain proportion of notices for
nuisances pending; and, in the second place, there will always be a
proportion of cases in which circumstances have arisen or explana-
tions have been given, which render it undesirable or impracticable to
have the notices, as issued, given effect to. In our own case there
have been additional reasons why a number of notices should be re-
ported as uncomplied with. The first is that I have not considered it
wise to proceed to extremities so early in our career. In a free
country, public opinion, local or general, is a factor which every
administrative official is bound to discount. In taking up the
administration of sanitary affairs in the County, I felt that to do use-
ful work we must carry the average public opinion of the County
with us, and that such public opinion might be aroused and rendered
antagonistic at the outset, if we did not proceed cautiously, and much
would be heard of 'new brooms.' I have therefore allowed some
minor nuisances, which might have led us into difficulties, to drop.
The general result of this policy was, I should say, that at the end of
the year, while some people thought us too exacting, and others
thought us slow to move, most people had no feeling one way or the
other. With that result, as a practical sanitarian, I feel satisfied. -
A second cause of delay arose out of the hindrances to the execution
of structural work imposed by the weather; the winter has been
severe, and we could not reasonably press people to proceed with
certain classes of work amidst snow and frost. - And, in the third
place, and sufficient in itself as a reason, we had so many decrees
pending towards the end of the year, and works being intermittently
- by reason of the weather - carried on, under decree, that we should
have got into confusion had we initiated any further legal proceed-

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