View report page

39
Wandsworth and Clapham Union. 29.—The Inquiry into the suggested separation of the
parish of Battersea from the Wandsworth and
Clapham Union referred to in the last Annual
Report was held by the Local Government Board Inspector, Mr.
Lockwood, at the Municipal Buildings, Battersea, on the 1st,
22nd, and 23rd October last, Mr. Horace Avory, K.C., and Mr.
H. C. S. Dumas represented this Council and Mr. Macmorran, K.C.,
and Mr. S. Mayer represented the Battersea Borough Council,
who opposed the proposal. A large amount of statistical and
other evidence was given at the Inquiry, in favour of and in
opposition to the proposal. The reasons advanced by this
Council for the separation are set out in the memorials to the
Local Government Board printed in former Annual Reports.
In November last a letter was received from the Local
Government Board stating that after full consideration of the
representations made at the Inquiry they had come to the conclusion
that sufficient evidence had not been brought to justify
the separation of Battersea from the Union at present; that the
Board realised that, in view of the increasing population of
Wandsworth, in the course of time a division of the Union would
be necessary, but that so far as they could see, this was not likely
to be the case for some 8 or 10 years to come and that when the
time arrived they would be prepared to re-consider the matter;
that in the meanwhile, the Board desired to impress upon the
Guardians the need for proceeding as quickly as possible with the
provision of the additional indoor accommodation which was
urgently required, and that in selecting sites for the necessary
buildings regard should be had to the probable division of the
Union in the future.
Royal Patriotic Asylum. 30.—The appeal of the Royal Patriotic Fund Commissioners
against the rating of the Royal Victoria Patriotic
Asylum was decided by a Divisional Court consisting
of the Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Alverstone), Mr.
Justice Wills and Mr. Justice Channell, on the 25th May, 1903.
The appeal had been pending since June, 1899, having been
lodged by the Commissioners against a rate made in April, 1899.
The Commissioners claimed that the Asylum was used exclusively
or mainly for the purposes of the school rooms, offices, or playground
of a Voluntary school and was therefore exempt from rating