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103
system of local management in the various districts, by
abolishing obsolete, conflicting, and overlapping bodies, and
providing for the administration of local affairs on the same
lines throughout the metropolis, by elected local authorities
possessing precisely similar functions within their respective
districts." Under such a scheme, there should be but
two local bodies in each unit of administration: one to
administer the poor law, and one to perform all other public
duties of a municipal character, such as making and collecting
the rates, the assessment of property, street lighting,
paving, cleansing, vaccination and all other matters relating
to the public health, registration of births and deaths,
registration of voters, &c. The Vestry would regard with
some apprehension any proposal to add local work to the
London County Council, on the double ground that the
central body would thereby be overweighted, and that any
diminution of the importance and responsibilities of local
bodies would have a tendency to reduce their prestige, and
induce the leading parishioners to withdraw more than ever
from active participation in local affairs.
The question of area is purely a local matter, and should
be decided with due consideration to the extreme desirability
of maintaining and fostering a desire on the part of
the inhabitants at large to take part in the administration
of local affairs. The Vestry attach considerable importance
to preserving the integrity of a parish with a history or
associations strongly appealing to the sentiment of its
inhabitants, and entertain grave doubts as to the wisdom of
merging such a parish in a district distinguished by some
name, which may in no way connect it with the past, and
may destroy its identity in the present.