I could not find a copy of the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act of 1899 on the web when I needed one. Since it is repealed it does not appear on the Statute Law database
But since this is still a proper library a kind librarian went to retrieve a bound volume for me from the basement & I had a pleasant time doing desk research the old fashioned way, with the smell of book dust in my nostrils. Why is this dust always so black?
One slim volume contained all the 51 Acts passed in 1899 – many of them are very short
Many of them also concerned topics which are still exercising Hon members, 110 years later
These were Acts which:
- raised the school leaving age to 12
- divided London into metropolitan boroughs, for more efficient government
- updated the electric lighting regulations
- made compulsory the provision of seats for shop assistants (but only where female assistants were employed)
- repealed the law which said that no municipal swimming bath (covered or open) could be used for singing & dancing
- allowed local education authorities to ascertain “what children in their district, not being imbecile, & not being merely dull or backward, are defective” so that suitable education could be provided for them
- had to amend the previous year’s Inebriate Act to arrange for the payment of prosecution expenses
- tightened up the powers of the Poor Law guardians to care for abused or abandoned children
- made provision for the Improvement of Telephonic Communication
- revised the legislation on sale of food & drugs, especially with regard to the import of margarine & margarine-cheese, extending the provisions of the Margarine Act of 1887
The interesting question is this: Would any single Act of 2009 fit into the volume which contains the laws of 1899?
