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118
a commercial speculation, but the Law and Parliamentary Committee
having reported that your Vestry have no authority for
placing obstructions in the public streets, the matter fell through.
In some other parishes the scheme has been entertained favourably,
and chalets have been erected. Should the system be found to
work satisfactorily, means will doubtless be found to overcome any
legal difficulties that may appear to stand in the way of its
extension.
PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES.
No practical steps have been taken since the publication of my
last report to give effect to the resolution of your Vestry in favour
of the establishment of public baths and wash-houses. The
difficulty of obtaining a suitable site has hitherto proved
insuperable.
MORTUARY.
Referring to the need of a Mortuary, and to the steps that had
been taken to give effect to the resolution of your Vestry to
provide one, I stated in my report for 1879 that a plan had been
approved by the Churchwardens, and that your Vestry had
completed an agreement with the Churchwardens settling the
conditions on which the building should be erected, as I had
recommended, in the disused Parish Churchyard; and I expressed
a hope that in my next (last) Annual Report I might have the
privilege of congratulating your Vestry on a successful issue to
long continued efforts to supply this much needed sanitary want.
I regret that I may not have this pleasure even now, but it is at
least satisfactory to know that the work is, at last, in the hands
of professional men, who will push it on, so that it is likely to be
carried to completion before the period named in the Faculty shall
have expired: with full assurance we may anticipate the
removal of a not undeserved reproach before the conclusion of
the current year.
CORONER'S COURT.
I have in former reports animadverted on the unseemly
necessity the Coroner is placed under of holding inquests in public
houses, he having no proper Court. When the Mortuary shall have