View report page

112
in December, the Secretary to the Estates Governors
forwarded a copy of a resolution passed by the
Governors, deciding to ask the opinion of the several
parishes interested as to offering the land for a park,
to the Metropolitan Board of Works, for £23,107
the present nett value of the land as estimated by
the College Surveyor. The Vestry thereupon decided
to take energetic action in the matter, and arranged
to hold a public meeting at the Vestry Hall, in favour
of the Park. Messrs. Coote, Lumley, Lassam, Fermor,
Faulkner, Walter, Whiteley, and Wallace, were also
appointed as a deputation to submit the views of the
Vestry to the Charity Commissioners, and to the
College Governors. The Vestries of Lambeth and
Newington were also asked, and cordially consented,
to co-operate; and it was decided to take action
independently of the Vestries of St. Luke's Middlesex
which—with the Vestries of St. Saviour and Bishopsgate—had
decided to support the Estates Governors
in the latest decision they had come to on the question.
In March in was reported to the Vestry that the
Estates Governors were not prepared to receive the
Vestry's deputation, and further, that they had instructed
their Solicitor to present a petition against
the Metropolitan Board of Works' (Various Powers)
Bill—which proposed, inter alia, to carry into effect
the Governors first offer, as a gift, of the land for the
park—with the view of amending the Bill so as to
provide "for the sale of Dulwich College lands on
terms to be agreed upon." The Board, however,
notwithstanding the contradictory action of the governors,
and the opposition of the Parish of St. Luke,
introduced their Bill into Parliament, and it is earnestly
to be hoped that—through the powerful support