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services, upon which points there are conflicting views, there can
be little doubt that these changes will have a bad effect on the
status and constitution of the Councils of Municipal Boroughs and
Urban Districts. These Authorities will be deprived of some of
their most important powers and functions, or, at any rate, will be
seriously fettered in their administration by a supervising authority,
and it is hardly to be expected that the leading men in the District,
who in the past have brought much ability and given much time to
the consideration of local affairs, will consent to give their ti'me to
an authority deprived of its more important powers and restricted
in its action by the directions of a supervising authority, possibly
not very conversant with local needs.
It is hoped that all Local Authorities will take advantage of the
invitation of the Minister to supply him with reasoned statements
for and against these proposals so that he may have an opportunity
of considering them before drafting a Bill on the lines he
has indicated to place before Parliament.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
J. M. CLEMENTS.
NATURAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
Beckenham is a residential suburb of London situaced in the
County of Kent, in the extreme North West corner of the County,
and just outside the Metropolitan area. It is about eight miles
from Charing Cross. On its North and West borders it touches the
Metropolitan Boroughs of Lewisham, Camberwell, and Lambeth,
on its West and South sides the Urban District of Penge, the
County Borough of Croydon and Codstone Rural District, on its
East and South East sides the Borough of Bromley and the Bromley
Rural District.
The total area of the District, including all land and inland
water, is 3;883 acres. Its elevation varies from 100 to 300 feet above