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To the Vestry of the Hamlet of Mile End Old Town.
Gentlemen,
On the 8th day of February, 1882, you passed a Resolution, as follows :
" That it be an instruction to the Officers of the Vestry to compile a
" Statement of the work accomplished by the Vestry since the passing
" of Sir Benjamin Hall's Act.
Appended hereto is my Statement.
I stated at the time that the work would be a heavy one, but it has proved
far more arduous than I ever anticipated.
At the time of the passing of the Resolution but very little was said to guide
the Officers as to what was required.
A copy of the Vestry's Minutes would have been an answer to the Resolution,
but I could not think that that was what the Vestry required.
Upon consideration I came to the conclusion that so far as my department
was concerned, the best and proper mode of making the Report was to gather the
most important things only under convenient headings, in a manner somewhat similar
to that in which I have compiled the Annual Reports of the Vestry during these last
few years.
By doing so I thought that comparisons could easily be drawn.
The most important thing of all, to my mind, was, to shew how the moneys
received by the Vestry had been expended. As the Receipts and Expenditure each
amounted to upwards of three quarters of a million of money this portion of the work
alone was very heavy.
Being personally but very slightly acquainted with the proceedings of the
Vestry during the first 16 years of its existence, I was compelled to wade through
all the proceedings in order to obtain accurate information.