Report to the General Board of Health on a memorial from the ratepayers against application of the Public Health Act to Northallerton / by William Ranger, Superintending Inspector.

  • Ranger, William, 1800-1863.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a memorial from the ratepayers against application of the Public Health Act to Northallerton / by William Ranger, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PUBLIC HEALTH ACT (11 & 12 Viet., cap. 63). 'eport on a Memorial from the Ratepayers against the Application of the Public Health Act to Northallerton. By William Hanger, Consulting Engineer. 13, Suffolk Streetf Pall Mall East, Jjondon, January 2‘^th, 1851. My Lords and Gentlemen, In obedience to your instructions, I have the honour to lay efore you the following Report on a Memorial, signed by several ‘the Ratepayers of Northallerton, and which was drawn up at a leeting held by the persons whose names are attached to it. Before entering upon a consideration of any of the allegations )ntained in the Memorial, 1 may remark that they have been irwarded at a period long subsequent to the 20th June last, hich was the latest date allowed by the Public Health Act >r the presentation of statements to the Board respecting any smarks or recommendations in the Report on the sanitary con- ition of the town of Northallerton. The first allegation contained in the Memorial is to the (Uowing effect;— “ That some of your Memorialists who signed the petition to your loiiourable Board to institute an inquiry into the sanitary condition of lorthallerton were, at the time they signed the said petition, ignorant f its provisions, and signed the same without due deliberation.” With respect to the above statement, it is not my province to eniark upon the conduct of persons who sign a petition for an mportant object, without knowing or caring to learn its purport lefore they attach their names to it. It is plain, however, that if here had been much desire on the part of these ratepayers to mow what the effect of their petition really would be, they might lasily have found out, because a whole year elapsed between the ime when the petition was forwarded for an enquiry and the date >f the enquiry itself, the former having been sent to the Board on he 27th October 1848, and the latter having been opened by mo m the JOth October 1849. During the time I held the enquiry 10 questions were put to me as to the powers or the provisions of he Act, the effect it was likely to produce upon the town, or the ;o8t which its application would impose upon it; and, until the present Memorial was forwarded to the Board, no statement was made, either verbally or in writing, to doubt or call in question [201.] b2