Nuisance arising from offensive trade

(1) Where any premises used for any trade, business, process of manufacture causing effluvia are certified to the Director of Health Services by a medical officer of health, or by any two registered medical practitioners, or by any ten inhabitants of the neighbourhood, to be a nuisance or injurious 66 or dangerous to the health of any such inhabitants, the Director of Health Services shall make a complaint to the court within whose jurisdiction the premises are situate, and if it appears to the court that the trade, business, process of manufacture carried on by the respondent is a nuisance, or causes effluvia which are a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to the health of any of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, then, unless it is shown that the respondent has used the best practicable means for abating the nuisance or preventing or counteracting the effluvia, the person so offending shall, if he is the owner or occupier of the premises or a foreman or other person employed by the owner or occupier, be guilty of an offence and be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars. (2) The court may suspend its final determination on condition that the defendant undertakes to adopt, within a reasonable time, such means as the court may think practicable, and order to be carried into effect, for abating the nuisance or mitigating or preventing the injurious effects of the effluvia. (3) The Director of Health Services may, on receiving such a certificate as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, cause proceedings to be taken either before a court of summary jurisdiction within whose jurisdiction the premises are situate or in the Supreme Court against any person in respect of the matters alleged in the certificate.