eit
Infectious Diseases (Prevention) Act 1880. (53 & 54 Vict. Ch. 70.)
Section 6.
Any Local authority.
may by notice in writing require the owner of any bedding. "clothing, or other articles, which have been exposed to the infection "of infectious disease to cause the same to be delivered over to "an officer of the local authority for removal for the purpose of "disinfection......................
.The bedding, clothing, article shall
any
"be disinfected by the authority and shall be brought back and delivered to the owner free of charge, and if any of them suffer
"
!!
any unnecessary damage the authority shall compensate the owner "for the same, and the amount of compensation shall be recoverable in, and in case of dispute. shall be settled by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction."
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the local authority of solitary houses scattered over widely different areas such as the present Ordinance would seem to aim at reserving power to the Government to do. The property proposed to be acquired by a local authority under the Housing of the Working Classes Act must be clearly defined and the area thereof delineated on Maps for the consideration of the local Government Board (who in turn receive duly authenticated reports from their own qualified Inspectors as to the reasonableness or otherwise not only of the Scheme for the acquirement of such property, but also of the opposition [if any] thereto,) and must if permitted to be acquired be so acquired "en bloc"--a vastly different state of circumstances to that proposed by the present Ordinance.
The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890. (53 & 54 Vict. Ch. 70.)
This is the most drastic of all the Acts now in force in England, relating to the compulsory acquirement of property. Yet, under it not only is the question of popular represen· tation so as to safe-guard property owners' rights distinctly provided for-see Section 5 (whereby the powers of the Medical Officer of Health for the district are to a large extent subordinated to those of the Justice of the peace (who represent the Public] for such district) Section 10 (whereby the local authority may be compelled to act on the before mentioned justice representation) Section 11 (whereby the local Government Board may. aml experience in England shows that they always do, compel the local authority desiring to avail itself of the provisions of the Housing of the Working Classes Act to provide proper accommodation for the persons displaced in the area affected or about so to be by the proposed enforcement of the Act in question) Sectious 7 & 8 (where- by certain clearly defined and salutary conditions precedent must be complied with by the local authority ere it can even gain au initial rightwhich may subsequently be limited or refused-to acquire under the Act in question property in private ownership, and this no matter how insanitary such property may be, but the question of compensation to property owners is specially provided for and distinctly directed to be awarded on what may be called fair and reasonable sliding scales.
In treating of this Act it is necessary to call special attention to the fact that the Act does not contemplate-nor do the local
Government ever permit the indiscriminate acquirements by
Section 23.
Pi
The London Building Act 1894.
(57 & 58 Vict. Ch. 212.)
(1.) In case any building or structure which shall in any part "thereof project beyond the general line of buildings in a street
..shall at any time be taken down..
it shall be lawful for the Council to require the same building or
.......to be set back....
structure.................
as the Council shall direct."
(2) "The Council shall make compensation to the owner of such "building for any damage or expenses which he may sustain."
12. That one of the gravest objections to the proposed new Ordinance is that, although on the face of it, it is an experimental and therefore a tentative Ordinance, it purports not only in its title but also in its body, to be a Consolidating and amending one-an anomaly that surely ought to be avoided.
Granted that sanitary defects exist, and owing to the fault of those Government Officials who have held office in the past, flourish in the Colony greatly to its detriment, that is no reason why such defects should not be thoroughly and expeditiously grappled with and eradicated.
It certainly cannot be contended with any degree of seriousness, that the system, or rather the absence of it, disclosed by the present Ordinance would in any way tend to really remedy the existing defects.