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which will be found at page 54; also for Scavenging and
Dusting, and for Watering. In each case the Contract is for a
period of three years, determinable at the end of the first or
second year, at the option of either party.
At the request of the Vestry of Lambeth, this Board, in
February last, appointed as its representatives, Messrs. Hale,
Goodwin and Haggis to attend a conference of delegates to
consider the United Telephone Company's Bill. The
Company seek powers thereby to place wires over, along,
across, and under roads of the Metropolis, not being at a less
height than 15-feet from the surface of the road, without the
consent of the road authority, and to place and maintain posts
upon and wires under roads, subject to certain restrictions,
and it is proposed to give power to a joint Committee of the
City of London and Metropolitan Board of Works to make
bye-laws. The conference met at the Lambeth Vestry Hall,
on the 16th March, and resolutions were passed as follows:—
1. That in the opinion of this Meeting of Delegates from the various
Metropolitan Vestries and District Boards of Works, it is desirable,
in the interest of the inhabitants of the Metropolis, that, as a
general principle, all telephone, telegraph, and electric-lighting
wires within the Metropolitan area should be placed underground.
2. That the control of the construction and maintenance of all
phone, telegraph, and electric-lighting wires in the parishes
mentioned in Schedules A and B to the Metropolitan Local
Management Act. 1855, should, whether within 15 foot of the
surface of the road or not, vest in and be under the direction of
the Vestry or District Board of the parish or district in which
such telephone, telegraph, and electric-lighting wires are situate.
3. That in order to prevent any separate Vestry or District Board
refusing arbitrarily the passage of through wires across their
parish to the detriment of other parishes, an appeal should be
allowed to the Metropolitan Board of Works similar to that
sanctioned by Section 211 of the Metropolis Local Management
Act, with reference to the orders or acts of the Vestry or Board
in relation to buildings, sewers, Ac.
4. That considering the serious invasion, not only of private, but also of
public rights, proposed by the Bill of the United Telephone
Company, the various Vestries and District Boards be recommended
to adopt the foregoing resolutions, and to oppose the Bill,
with the view to have the principles embodied in such resolutions
incorporated in the Bill, and such other amendments as are
detailed in the Petition of the Metropolitan Board of Works
against the Bill.
United Telephone
Company's
Bill.