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Vestry was required to the effect that it was necessary to do so, but
the Vestry naturally declined to pass such resolution until they
were furnished with the facts in each case, and which the officers
had no authority to obtain. The subject of the alteration
of these Bye-laws was considered by your Committee, November
10th, 1896, when it was resolved to recommend the Vestry
to make alteratious in the direction referred to, but the
Vestry declined to endorse the Committee's recommendation
and the Bye-laws remained inoperative until Jannary, 1898,
when the following Report and recommendation of your Committee
was considered at a Special Meeting of the Vestry.
"Resolved—To report to the Vestry that it has been found in
practice that very few houses, if any, iu the Parish come within
the operation of the existing Bye-laws, with reference to houses
let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one
family ; and many houses in the Parish now exempted by reason
of the rent paid by each lodger being larger than the amounts
specified in Clause 2 (ii) and (iii) should be registered under the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and to recommend the Vestry
to take the necessary steps to make new Bye-laws under the Act,
eliminating the provisions above referred to, as regards the
amount of rent payable, and also the portion of the Bye-laws
relating to the initial stage of the proceedings for carrying out
the same."
This recommendation having been approved and adopted, the
subjoined Bye-laws were accepted by the Vestry in lieu of those
at the time in force, and were duly forwarded to the Local
Government Board for approval. In April, however, the Vestry
Clerk reported the receipt of a letter from the Local Government
Board returning the proposed regulations and suggesting that a
limit of rental should be specified, it being in their opinion unreasonable
to include within the scope of the Bve-laws every
lodging-house with a non-resident landlord without reference to
the circumstances of each case, and empowering the Committee
to communicate to the Board the reason why the clauses specifying
rental were eliminated by the Vestry. To this letter I subsubmitted
the following Report:—
"The existing Bye-laws were approved by the Local Government
Board, October 29th, 1895, and were at once put into operation,
but it soon became manifest that the objection of the owners of
the class of property which it is desirable to register was so great
as to cause all manner of schemes to be resorted to in order to