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your representatives on the Board of the Estates Governors
of Dulwich College; in this capacity we have taken special
interest in what is perhaps the most important part of our
duties—the development of unused land for building purposes,
and the consequent increase in the income of the
Estate. All agreements for letting land for building have
to be submitted for the approval of the Charity Commission.
This provision in itself must necessarily cause a
certain amount of delay, even under the most favourable
circumstances. What we wish to point out is, that when
this delay extends over a considerable period (sometimes of
months) its paralysing effect on important negociations
must be of very serious detriment to the interests of the
Charity. Further, the Commissioners have for some time
past seriously increased our difficulties by certain additional
requirements: the chief of these is that there should be a
report by an independent Surveyor on proposed building
agreements. For this report, which we never see, the
Governors have to pay. In only one case has such a report
induced the Commissioners to vary the conditions agreed to
by the Governors, and then, owing either to the delay or to
some slight change in the original terms, the Contractor
refused to proceed further, and the letting was lost.
Recently the Board, after careful consideration,
arranged with a responsible builder, the heads of a proposed
building agreement for the taking of over sixty acres of
land. This proposal, if carried out, would have largely increased
the income of the Estate, and in our opinion would
have been a benefit to the surrounding neighbourhood.
To enable the Vestry to realize the importance we