View report page

62
No action has been taken, hitherto, by the House, to give
effect to the recommendations of the Committee. The Public
Control Committee of the London County Council have also
dealt with the question, and arrived at conclusions on which
they based a variety of recommendations, which were fully
set out in my annual report for 1894 (page 70). These
recommendations having been approved by the Council, the
Public Control Committee were " authorised to attend as a
deputation before the Lord Chancellor in support of the
amendment of the law relating to coroners' inquests in the
County of London, in accordance with the recommendations
referred to," and were directed to " urge the advisableness of
paying a juryman a sum sufficient to compensate a workman
for actual loss of time incurred in performing that public duty,
and of making it compulsory that coroners' juries should be
summoned by rota" Recently the Council have adopted a
report of the Committee, recommending that "where the jury
have been chosen strictly in rotation from persons in the
parish eligible for service, there may be paid to each person
summoned, but not exceeding 15 persons in all, two shillings.
This fee is for each attendance, irrespective of the number of
inquests the juror serves upon, and is to be paid only when
the juror applies for payment." This recommendation takes
effect from the 1st of April, 1898.
INQUESTS.
Two hundred and twenty-four inqu~sts were held on
parishioners, including 40 at places without the parish, mostly
at public institutions to which the deceased persons had been
removed for treatment. The cause of death is stated to have
been ascertained by post-mortem examination in 113 cases.
Forty-five inquests were held on the bodies of non-parishioners
who had died in Kensington. Of the 229 inquests in the
parish, 223 were held at the coroner's court at the Town Hall,
4 at the St. Marylebone Infirmary, and 2 at the Parish
Infirmary. It is now some years since an inquest in Kensington
was held at a public house.