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REPORT.
The Vestry have the pleasure to lay before the
Ratepayers of the Hamlet a Report of their proceedings
for the year which ended on the 25th March, 1866.
With regard to that extensive department of their
duties, which consists of the maintenance of the public
roads and sewers, they cannot do better than refer to
the Annual Report of their Surveyor, which is submitted
herewith, and contains important details on this subject.
In the same document will also be found the particulars
of the new paving and sewerage works undertaken during
the year. The Vestry would have been glad to
report the carrying out of further works, but they have
felt obliged to have regard to the burdens of the Ratepayers,
and have endeavoured on the one hand to satisfy
the claims of public improvements, and on the other to
avoid the necessity of imposing unwonted local taxation.
The exigency of steering safely between the two extremes
of neglected duties and extravagant outlay, is one of
the difficulties which beset their office.
The Vestry have not been unmindful of their obligations
as the Sanitary Authority of an important district,
although they are aware that they have not yet brought
the Hamlet up to that point of exemption from disease
and unhealthy influences, towards the attainment of
which they are gradually working. It must be remembered
that they had much to undo as well to do. For
years before the organisation of the present system of
local government in the Metropolis, not only were the
principles of sanitary progress either neglected or