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will be found in the Appendix a list of Members, shewing at what
date each will go out of office by rotation.
Mr. Brooker was ballotted to go out of office as a Member of the
Metropolitan Board of Works on the 9th June, 1858, and was on
that day re-elected by the united Boards of Works for the Plumstead
and Lewisham Districts.
The names of the Auditors of Accounts appointed, both for
Lewisham and Penge, for each year, will be found in the Appendix.
Mr. Corbett became disqualified to act as an Auditor of
the Accounts of the Board by taking a contract under them; and
the Auditors appointed to audit their Accounts to the 25th March,
1858, were Messrs. Jones, Lyon, and Hopcraft—the latter gentleman,
however, from a misapprehension of the possible duties involved
in his appointment as an Auditor by the Yestry of Penge,
did not attend, and the Accounts were therefore audited by Messrs.
Jones and Lyon alone.
The Meetings of the Board have not been so numerous as during
their first year; a more familiar acquaintance with their duties
having facilitated their performance of them. On the 11th June,
1857, a resolution was passed at a Special Meeting convened for
the purpose, that the Board should thenceforward meet only once a
fortnight, except when specially convened, and this has, with some
extension of the time of each sitting, and a more general reference
of matters of detail to Committees, been found sufficient for the
transaction of the business. The substitution of fortnightly for
weekly meetings has also resulted in an increased attendance of
Members—the average attendance at each Meeting for twenty
Meetings, from the date of the alteration to the end of March, 1858,
having been nearly fourteen, against an average attendance of
eleven Members for the same number of Meetings preceding the
alteration; and on only two occasions has there been an insufficient
number (7) of Members present to form a quorum, on one of which
a Committee was held under the Resolution providing for such
cases, and on the other an extra Meeting was held the following
week. There have been forty-one Ordinary Meetings of the Board,
from the 1st January, 1857, to the 31st March, 1858, and eight
Special Meetings—two of which, however, were held on one evening,
and two others on the same evenings, and after the business of the
Ordinary Meetings. A table shewing the attendances of each
Member is given in the Appendix, but it must be observed, in
consulting it, that the Members against whose names an (*) is
placed have not been upon the Board the whole period.
The Board have, as alluded to, availed themselves more extensively
of the power given them of appointing Committees
for purposes which, in their discretion, would be thus better
managed, and, in addition to the Committees specially appointed