The omission of some such provision made the Vestries practically independent bodies, and arbiters as to the administration or non-administration of various important provisions of existing or future Acts of Parliament, and afforded them the opportunity, so freely and widely availed of, of not performing duties against their own opinions or interests.
As regarded these newly created local authorities—the “Vestries” and the “District Boards of Works”—the powers and duties conferred upon them were extensive.
All the powers and duties of the previous local authorities as regarded paving, lighting, watering, and cleansing, or improving any parish, were transferred to them.
The sewers, other than the main sewers, were vested in them, with the contingent duty of maintaining, repairing, and cleansing them, and they were given power to put sewers in every street. Also, they were given power, under certain circumstances, to compel owners of houses, “whether built before or after the commencement of this Act,” to construct drains into the common sewer.
Furthermore, no house was to be built without drains constructed to the satisfaction of the Vestry, or without sufficient sanitary conveniences, and they were directed to cause open ditches, sewers, and drains of an offensive nature, or likely to be prejudicial to health, to be cleansed, filled up, and covered. And they were required to appoint scavengers to collect the dirt and rubbish, or to contract for its removal.
And each of the authorities was to appoint one or more Medical Officers of Health, whose duty it should be to inspect and report periodically upon the sanitary condition of the parish or district, and who would act as medical adviser to the Vestry in all matters relating to the public health, and was also to appoint one or more Inspectors of Nuisances to report as to the existence of nuisances or disease, and perform various other duties in connection with the sanitary condition of the parish.
Provision was also made for the prevention of the sale of food unfit for human consumption.
The Sanitary Inspector “might at all reasonable times inspect and examine any carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, or flour exposed for sale,” and in case the same appeared to him to be unfit for such food it might be seized, and the magistrate might order it to be destroyed, and the person to whom it belonged, or in whose custody it was found, should on conviction be liable to a penalty of £10.
By “The Nuisances Removal Act for England” the word “nuisances” was so defined as to include any accumulation or deposit which was injurious to health, “any premises in such a state as to be injurious to health, any pool, ditch, water-course, cesspool, drain, or ashpit, &c., so foul as to be a nuisance or injurious to health.”
The right to give notice to the sanitary authority of the existence of a nuisance was extended, and the process was facilitated. Notice might be given to the sanitary authorities by the person aggrieved, by the sanitary inspector, or by a constable, or by two inhabitant householders of the parish; and certain powers of entry were given to the local authority or their officer. The justices who heard the case might require the person offending to provide sufficient sanitary accommodation, means of drainage, or ventilation, to abate the nuisance, or to whitewash, disinfect, or purify the premises which were a nuisance, and could inflict a fine for contravention of the order of abatement; and, if the nuisance proved to exist were such as, in their judgment, to render a house unfit for human habitation, they were given authority even to prohibit the using thereof until it was rendered fit.