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with a notice in writing, signed by the Vestry Clerk, requiring
him to supply the information necessary for the registration
of such house, shall be bound, within a period of 14 days
after such service, to attend, either personally or by his agent
duly authorised, at the offices of the Vestry during office
hours, and then and there to furnish and sign a true
statement of "certain particulars."
It will be remembered that the Sub-Committee charged
with the framing of the regulations, acting on the advice
of their Chairman (Lord Hobhouse), reported against the
admission of the one in question when proposed by the
Local Government Board, and that the Vestry adopted that
view. Their reason was that the legislature has only
empowered the Vestry to make regulations for registration,
and they did not think that such terms included a power to
call a man away from his business or his home to the Vestry
Office, to give information to the officials whenever they
thought fit. This view was communicated to the Local
Government Board, first by writing and afterwards by
interview, but that Board was advised differently, and
insisted on the insertion of the regulation. A similar clause
having been inserted among the regulations for the Parish of
St. Giles, that Parish summoned a landlord who declined to
comply with it, when the Magistrate before whom the case
was tried decided that the regulation in question exceeded
the powers conferred on the District Board by the Act, and
was altogether null and inoperative.
I make this statement for two reasons— first, to show
that if it turns out that one of our regulations is illegal, it
is not due to error on the part of the Vestry; secondly, for
the purpose of adding that the Regulation in question should
in my opinion, not be acted on unless and until higher
judicial authority has declared that the opinion of the
magistrate is erroneous.