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32
13. The Council also attended, on the 10th June, 1908, the
institution of the Rev. Prebendary Dalton as Rector of Clapham
at the Clapham Parish Church.
14. The draft of the Scheme of the Charity Commissioners
Weir Hospital reference to the Weir Hospital Trust, referred
Trust- to in the last Annual Report, was received in July
last, when a Special Committee of the Council was appointed to
consider the matter. The following report of the Committee was
adopted by the Council on the 23rd September, 1908, viz. :—
1. We have considered the proposed Scheme of the Charity Commissioners
for the administration of the Weir Hospital Charity.
2. The Scheme is practically the same as that proposed by a majority
of the Trustees and former Committee of Management, which was the
subject of the Public Inquiry held by Mr. H. A. Baker, Assistant Commissioner,
at Balham, on the 5th and 8th November last, when it was strongly
objected to by the numerous inhabitants of Streatham who attended or
were represented there.
3. The proposed expenditure of 50,000 of the Capital Funds of the
Charity for completing and equipping the blocks of buildings of the Bolingbroke
Hospital, situate in the Borough of Battersea, is contrary to the
terms of Mr. Weir's Will, which contemplates a capital expenditure out of
the accumulated income of such funds only, and for a dissimilar purpose.
The Testator clearly directed that The Hawthorns, Grove Road, Balham,
should be established as a Hospital, to be called the Weir Hospital, and did
not intend to benefit any existing institution, more especially one not
situate in Streatham. The expenditure of this sum of £0,000 would
absorb more than one-half of the present value of the Charity Funds.
4. The Scheme would place the control of the Funds in the hands of a
body consisting of eighteen members, of whom only six would be chosen in
a similar way to that prescribed by the Will. The Scheme gives no indication
of the manner in which the twelve other members are to be chosen.
5. The proposal to establish a home for forty nurses is not only not
provided for by the Testator's Will, but as only three of the nurses would
render gratuitous service it would not even be using the Funds for a
charitable purpose. Trained nurses can be obtained by persons requiring
them, at existing institutions.
6. As the Scheme is fundamentally opposed to the views set out in the
Memorial to the Charity Commissioners, sealed by the Council on the 4th
December last (a copy of which accompanies this report), it appears to us
that it would serve no good purpose to suggest amendments to its details.
We may, however, point out that the Scheme omits to provide (which it
should do) for the annual expenditure of £20 for repairs to St. Mary's
Church, Balham, or for the maintenance of Mr. Weir's tablet in that