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Thus the debt on the part of Lewisham Parish in the Ravensbourne
District is £18,705 10s. 6d., and on the part of the Parish
in the Greenwich District only £2,605 10s. lid., and it is partly in
respect of these debts (portions of which have been paid off by the
Metropolitan Board), that the sums to be raised on mortgage by
this Board will be re-borrowed; but in addition to these sums are
the debts on the current expenditure of the Commissioners of
Sewers and for the Ordnance Survey of the Metropolis, which are
also similarly apportioned, and the debt in respect of the Main
Intercepting Drainage Works, the particulars of which are given
on page 18 of the former Report.
Several subjects of general metropolitan interest have, at various
times, occupied the attention of the Board, and have been agitated
by various Vestries and District Boards, as affecting more peculiarly
the ratepayers of their parishes and districts. In some of these
movements the Board have felt it to be incumbent upon them to
join, and from others to hold aloof. Of the latter class is that for
the equalization of Poor Rates throughout the Metropolis, which
has been viewed without reference to the merits of the question,
but in its pecuniary bearings on the district, and as the Poor Rate
in neither of the parishes in this district exceeds the average rate
(Is. in the £), which it is thought would result from the adoption
of the proposition, it is clear that no pecuniary benefit would be
derived in the district by the change, and the Board have, therefore,
abstained from taking any part in the attempt to accomplish
it.
The proposition for making Parks and improving the Streets of
London, by rates to be levied upon the Metropolis, as defined by
the Metropolis Local Management Act, is one of the most serious
importance to the ratepayers of this district, who will derive no appreciable
benefit from any such works; the Board have, therefore,
taken an active part in the opposition to the scheme on its first appearance
in the shape of a bill for forming a Park for the Borough
of Finsbury, and a Committee of Delegates from the Metropolitan
Vestries and District Boards having been formed for organising the
opposition to the bill, delegates were appointed by the Board. A
meeting of representatives of 27 parishes was held in May, 1857,