London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Fulham 1889

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham]

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86
The Destry of the Parish of Fulham
Vestry Hall, Walham Green, S.W.
Auditors' Certificate.
£
s.
d.
We, the undersigned Auditors of the Accounts of the Vestry
of the Parish of Fulham, for the financial year ending
25th March, 1890, hereby certify that we have examined
the Books of the Vestry, and have compared the
vouchers with the Cheques, and we find the balance of
2780
1
11
at the Bankers, on Current and Deposit Accounts to be
correct, and allowing for the outstanding cheques,
amounting to
935
4
0
the Balance to be
£1844
17
11
We have also examined the Loan Account of the Vestry, and
we find that the Loans, including £7,800 borrowed
during the past year, amount to
£56,521
9
4
We note that the Auditors for the previous year called attention to the
unsatisfactory condition of the New Streets Accounts, then showing a sum
of £3158 19s. l1d. outstanding, and suggesting that the Vestry should
devise some means to prevent these arrears from accumulating, this we find
has not been acted upon; the said arrears have been increased by the sum
of £475 13s. 3d., making the total amount owing on streets completed at
25th March, 1890, to be £3634 13s. 2d., and that these amounts do not
appear by the Banker's pass books to be outstanding, is through the
collection on streets freshly apportioned and not yet paved. Also, we are
of opinion that the whole blame of the outstanding amounts through bad
collection does not rest on the shoulders of the New Streets Clerk, the new
work appears to be so voluminous that it must be impossible for one man
to keep pace with it. We also personally know that a great many of the
debtors are in a position to pay, and we do not think it would be very
difficult to recover their amounts with the powers the Yestry have at their
control.
We find that the sum of £311 17s. 5d. has been expended in disinfecting
goods, bedding, &c., during the past year, and, taking into consideration
that the Sanitary Committee recommended the Yestry to build a Disinfector
at a cost of £300, we think a great saving would have been effected by the
carrying out of such recommendation.
We also find that since 1st November, 1889, the sum of £57 5s. has been
expended in the emptying of cesspools in Horder Road, and we do not find
any precedent for such payment it having always been done previously at
the expense of the owners, also that the Rates received from the property
are only a snail moiety of the amount expended.
We also note that the sum of £123 3s. 4d. has been expended in repairs
to a steam roller, this we believe to be about one third of its cost and is in
our opinion very excessive.
We also find that during the past year £2,305 14s. 3d. has been expended
on horse hire, we think it is a very heavy item, and that a considerable
saving would have been effected if the Vestry had purchased their own
horses seeing that they were paying rent for stable accommodation.