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67
be a suburban population outside London as great as that within
the central area. It might be said that we ought to wait for
that time; but it must be remembered that the action of the
body about to be created would be the action for all time. Whatever
that action might be, the cost would fall upon the future.
That was the reason why they did not accept the numerical
proportion of consumers in the London area as a guide to the
representation, but they suggested as the proper proportion
of that representation that the London County Council should
have a majority on this body. He had mentioned thirty as the
constitution of this Board. Of these twenty-eight would be
ascribed to the different areas, and those would be the representatives
of the consumers. Of these twenty-eight they have
sixteen to the London County Council. To the Corporation
of the City of London they gave two members. To the County
Councils of Middlesex, Essex, and West Ham they also gave
two each, and to the counties of Surrey, Kent, and Hertford,
and to Croydon, they gave one each. They had taken into
account the greater population of the counties to which two
members had been given. They felt that the Thames Conservancy
was a body which required representation, for the
greater portion of the water supply of London proceeded from
the Thames ; and as to obtaining a sufficient supply and its
purity that Board was the guardian of the public, therefore they
had given it one representative in the proposed trust. The case
of the Lea Conservancy Board was not so strong, but he did not
think they could refuse to give them a representative. One
great question which had arisen was whether the representation
should be direct or indirect. Direct representation would of
course mean an appeal to the ratepayers in all these areas. In
the first place they came to the conclusion that the inhabitants
of the metropolis had quite enough local elections at the present
time. They also felt that there might be a difficulty in the
ratepayers selecting proper persons as members of this board.
There might be a vast number of candidates nominated, and
there might be contested elections, and yet they might not