§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the mode in which the Law in regard to Sunday trading is being enforced by the Holborn Vestry in Leather Lane, viz., by drenching the boards and goods of the costermongers with carbolic acid from a water cart; and, whether he will take steps to prevent the repetition of that procedure?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, the clerk of the Holborn Board had forwarded to him a letter from the medical officer, an extract from which he would read. The medical officer said that before any attempt was made by the Board to suppress street trading after 11 o'clock on Sunday mornings he had directed this particular street to be watered during the Summer months on Sundays with a weak solution of carbolic acid, in order to prevent injury to 970 health arising from the large quantity of animal and vegetable refuse left upon the carriage-way by costermongers and stall keepers. That proved so successful that it was adopted generally on Sundays. The solution was so weak that it could not injure either person or property, and since that precaution had been adopted they had only had one case of preventible disease—small-pox—in the neighbourhood, and that one was imported. The Vestry, therefore, intended to continue it.