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and a Special Committee formed, consisting of the three Chairmen
of Committees (Messrs. Baxter, Coles and Newton), and the
mover and seconder of the resolution (Messrs. Grattan and
Wood), and they were instructed to prepare the necessary
evidence and to arrange to attend before the Public Health
Committee of the Council in opposition to the scheme. Communications
were addressed to the Managers of the Board
Schools in Orange Street, the authorities of the Evelina Hospital,
Mr. Causton, M.P., and others; and, on the 8th of December
the deputation was received by the Committee of the Council.
The School Managers also sent a deputation, and strong
representations were made by Mr. Baxter, Mr. Newton and
others on behalf of the Board, and by Mr. Dumphreys and
others on behalf of the Managers, as to the dangerous character
of the nuisance which would result from the establishment of a
crematorium for the purpose referred to in so crowded a
neighbourhood, and in close proximity to a school where
hundreds of children were in daily attendance. Afterwards,
on a report that the Council had purchased a piece of land in
Orange Street for the purpose in view, another Special Committee
was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Carter, Coles,
Gibbings, Grattan and Newton, with instructions to take
immediate action. Accordingly a Special Meeting of the Board
was held on the 28th of February and a petition to the Council
adopted, as follows:—
"TO THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL."
"The Humble Petition of the Board of Works for the
St. Saviour's District, sheweth as follows:—
"YOUR PETITIONERS beg most respectfully and earnestly to
draw your attention to the serious consequences likely to follow the
importation into this crowded district of the carcases of glandered
and farcied animals for the purpose of destruction.
"The proposed destructor will be close to a Board School recently
enlarged to receive the children of those whose employment compels
them to live in proximity to the City, and who are crowding into this
already over-populated district. These children have scarcely any
playground but the streets, they live and sleep in the small rooms of
tenements, blockcd in by lofty warehouses or factories, and these with
blank walls and dingy houses in narrow and dreary streets, form almost
their only surroundings. Their vitality is therefore low and their
general state of health such as to render them predisposed subjects for
the contraction of any infection. The total absence of any objects of
interest in the neighbourhood will make them more eager to crowd
round any unusual or gruesome object that may come into the streets,
and thus attract them to the very centre of disease.
"A free Library and Public Baths and Wash-honses are in course
of erection in the district with a view to make the lives of the inhabitants
brighter and more tolerable, and to counteract these good
influences by the erection of a destructor with its contaminating accompaniments
would be a double wrong.