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102
protection of public or private rights of the parishioners.
The promoters agreed to the insertion of a satisfactoryclause
in the Bill, and it was therefore not deemed necessary
to proceed with the opposition. It is proposed to work
the railway by electricity.
PROPOSED DISTRICT COUNCILS.
Seeing how well, speaking generally, the improved system
of local government inaugurated by the Metropolis Local
Management Act has worked, the Vestry are not impressed
with the necessity of any great change in the existing law.
A local Vestry is usually a reflex of the public opinion of
the locality, and, as might be expected, the same standard
of excellence has not been attained by all the metropolitan
Vestries. It is questionable, moreover, whether any improvement
would be manifested if Vestries were superseded
by bodies representing the same electors, even though their
name were changed.
In the month of May the Vestry expressed concurrence
with the Vestry of Chelsea in an abstract proposition that
it is desirable to preserve old landmarks in administrative
areas, as far as possible, in any change in the system of local
government, and a month later, upon the invitation of the
same Vestry, appointed representatives to attend a Conference
to consider the suggested formation of District
Councils.
As to the direction which reform in the local management
of London should take, the Vestry see no reason to
alter the opinion they expressed in a resolution in the year
1884, that any scheme "should simplify and unify the