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132
It was argued that the London local authorities should
have the same powers as those given to provincial bodies. In
dealing with this question, in the Annual Summary appended
to the thirteenth report for 1897 (page 165), I observed
that:—
" Your Vestry have, at present, no power to put Part
III. into operation: it only remains, therefore
. . . that steps should be taken to promote
legislation to make the Sanitary Authority the
Local Authority, sole or concurrent, under this
Part. It was (I added) a legislative mistake to
endue the Council with exclusive power, and the
sooner the mistake is rectified the better." I
pointed out,'moreover, the " strange anomaly that
the Sanitary Authority of the Metropolis should
be denied powers enjoyed by the most insignificant
Urban Sanitary Authority without London,"
and illustrated the benefits that might be conferred
on the poor by the experience of the
governing authority of the City of Glasgow,
" where Municipal lodging-houses for the dregs of
the population, the outcasts of society, have been
provided ; the means of a comfortable, homely,
and a social life of a sort, being thus secured to
these poor creatures, at a reasonable outlay for
lodging and other accommodation, and this without
entailing any burden on the ratepayers."
In connection with the resolutions of the Bermondsey Conference,
above adverted to, the Sanitary Committee had before
them a letter from the Vestry of Battersea stating that they
had requested the London County Council to insert a clause
in their next General Powers Bill, empowering Local
Authorities to erect dwellings for the working classes, and