View report page

149
detection to any of the 2,858 lamps of the parish, except
those to which the meters may have been affixed.
The Committee therefore recommended the Vestry to
adopt the average meter system, and to affix a registered
meter to every 24 lamps throughout the parish, Messrs.
Middlemass and Ballantine agreeing with the recommendation
with the reservation that they did so on the ground not
that the meter system would effect a probable saving in the
cost of lighting, but rather that it would be a permanent test
of the quantity and regularity of the supply.
An exhaustive appendix to the Committee's report set
forth in detail the result of further tests taken bv Mr. G. Mills,
Inspector of the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Mr. Mills selected a certain number of roads in each
Ward, took the governors and burners out of the lamps as
they were consecutively numbered in these roads, and had them
carefully packed and afterwards tested and refixed, a representative
of the Gas Company being present at the taking off
and refixing. The result was that 96 governors tested, from
December 10th to 18th, gave an average consumption per
lamp per hour of 4.96 feet.
It will be seen from this that the evidence of the experts
employed was somewhat conflicting, and, in view of this and the
heavy expense which would have been necessitated by the
adoption of the meter system, no change was for the present
considered expedient. The report was therefore duly "received"
on the l6th March, 1887, and the best thanks of the Vestry
accorded to the Committee for the valuable information they
had submitted.
PARK STREET HOUSES.
In my last Annual Report I stated that the Medical Officer
of Health certified that the houses numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and
13, on the east side of Lower Park road, and those numbered