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13
The Board of Works for the Lewisham District.
To the Metropolitan Board of "Works.
The Memorial of the Board of Works for the Lewisliam District,
under their Common Seal,
Sheweth—
1. That in the year 1855 an Act of Parliament was passed
entituled "An Act for the Better Local Management of the Metropolis."
That your Memorialists form one of the District Boards
constituted by such Act, and are set forth in the second part of
Schedule B of such Act as returning one Member to the Metropolitan
Board of Works, in conjunction with the Board of Works for
the Plumstead District.
2. That your Memorialists, the Board of Works for the
Lewisham District, consists, according to such Act, of 27 Members,
and that of the Plumstead Board of 37 Members; and it follows
that, in electing a Representative to your Honourable Board, the
Plumstead Board has 37 votes against the 27 votes of the Lewisham
Board, consequently, although nominally the Lewisham Board
join in electing a Representative to your Honourable Board, as a
matter of fact and practice, they can have no material voice, under
ordinary circumstances, in the election.
3. That since the constitution of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, and the Metropolitan Vestries and District Boards in 1856,
vast changes have taken place in the position of such Vestries and
District Boards with regard to the relative importance owing to
the varying rates of increase both in population and rateable value
that have occurred in their respective districts. Your Memorialists
submit, as a not unreasonable request, that after a lapse of 27
years some alteration or increase in the representation to your
Honourable Board should be made, in order to redress the anomalies
that such changes have necessarily caused.
4. At the formation of the District your Memorialists had
only a population, according to the census of 1851, of 16,233, being
the smallest of any of the Districts contained in Schedule B, and
being also a smaller population than any of the Parishes contained
in Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule A, with the exception of the Parish
of St. John, Hampstead. But according to the last ccnsus (1881)
the population of your Memorialists' District had increased to