The 1859 Select Committee into the Condition of the Working Classes of the Metropolis described widespread prostitution. Nineteenth-century legislation included the "Criminal Law Amendment Act 1883" and "Police Offences Act 1901". Attempts to pass contagious diseases legislation were resisted, and unlike other States, legislative control was minimal till the general attack on 'vice' of the first decade of the twentieth century which resulted in the "Police Offences Amendment Act 1908", and the "Prisoners Detention Act". Street prostitution was controlled by the "Vagrancy Act 1902" (sec. 4[c) enabling a woman to be arrested as a 'common prostitute'. This was strengthened by an amendment of the "Police Offences (Amendment) Act 1908", which also prohibited living on the earnings.