Hawke's Bay Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1892. LODGING HOUSES INSPECTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 9144, 30 August 1892, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1892. LODGING HOUSES INSPECTION.

If wo go on in the Hoes laid down by tho present Ministry we shall soon have oar meal times and Bleeping hoars rigidly fixed by Act of Parliament, and anyone found surreptitiously eating a biscuit or takiofr an illegal siesta will be hanled before a beach of magistrates and fined, The latest samplo of grandmotherly legislation introduced bears tho name of Mr Seddon, and is entitled the Boarding and Lodging Houses Bill. A boarding or lodging house is defined as any house, tent, or edifice, uot being a licensed publichouse, in which three or more persons, besides tbe occupying tenant and his family, ordinarily sleep. Every tenant of snch a bonce is to be required to apply to the local authority for registration, sond. ing In with tho application a certificate of character in a prescribed form, and paying s fee of 10s ; " being thus pat on a par with dogs, except as to wearing collars," as a Southern contemporary expresses it, The local bodies— Borough or County Councils and Town Boards have to frame bye-laws made for regulating all such houses, for fixing the number dI boarders, for promoting cleanliness »nd ventilation and in respect to inßpeciion " for the well ordering of such houses, [or the separation of the sexes therein, )nd tor preventing facilities for the con:ealmoDt and escape of criminals therein )r therefrom ; " and all police officers are

required to cause the regulations to be jiiforoed. The unfortunate householder hl is to be subject to domiciliary visits at he any hour by the police, and will be liable to heavy pecuniary penalties for any d j breach of the Aot. He has, at the will of o\ the local authority or the chief officer of $ police, to report the name of every person who resorted to his house dnring the B| preceding day or night, to thoroughly i-j cleanse " all the rooms, passages, stairs, "j floors, windows, doors, walls, ceilings, ■' privies, cesspools, and drains" to the satis- jj| faction of the local authority, and "to « limewash the Walls and ceilings thereof.'* Ir When any person is ill of foyer, or any infections or contagious disease, he Is to t> fiive immediate notice thereof to the local jj authority. This is reasonable enough j a but it is already provided for nnder the t Pnblic Health Act, and the local bodies have full power to enforce j, (Xinitary conditions. There ib no necessity I for such an Act in New Zealand. Ib is r true that what are called "common" i lodging bouses in England have to be licensed, and are subject to police inspec- f Hon. A "common" lodging-home ifl a place where beda are let for" a few pence a i night, and everyone hiring a bed has a i light to cook a simple meal at the fire. J The object of the English Act is to enforce | sanitary laws, nnd to aid the police ia keeping under observation known ' ciiminals or suspected persons, But the Act docs not apply to boarding-bouses of ; n better stnmp, snch as we have in New Zoaland, and it is a gratuitous impertlnenco to bring respectable hsuseholders nnder a law originally designed to apply to keepers r f thievos' dens and the lowest class of " doss " honses.