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colour. This has been done to ten lamp-posts in the district
at a cost of about £9. A further suggestion that a strip of red
glass, with an inscription in white letters, should be inserted in
the lamps so distinguished, was ordered to stand over until the
arrangements proposed to be made by the Board for incandescent
gas lighting are carried out.
TELEPHONES.
In October, 1898, the Board expressed its concurrence with
the following resolutions passed by the Wandsworth Board of
Works on the subject of Telephones:—
a. That the Telephone service is already of so great
public importance and is calculated to become of such
general use and benefit that it ought to be exclusively
exercised by Government, and for the reason (amongst
others) that it is essential for a successful service that it be
under one and the same supreme and exclusive authority
for the whole country.
b. That it is not desirable that the telephone service
should be undertaken by the London County Council and
the other local authorities, whether in competition with or
after purchase from the National Telephone Company.
c. That the Post Office should not undertake a distinct
telephone service in competition with the National Telephone
Company, but that, on terms to be arrived at by
arbitration or other means mutually agreed, should take
over the undertaking and property of the Company.
Subsequently, on the introduction by the National Telephone
Company of Bills (three in number) in Parliament which
would have given the Company enormous powers, to the
detriment of the local authorities, in regard to the breaking up
of roads, streets, etc., communications were received from the
Vestries of St. Luke, Middlesex, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and
others, and from the City Corporation, calling the attention of
the Board to the objectionable nature of many of the provisions
contained in these bills, the latter asking the Board to appoint
delegates to attend a conference at the Guildhall on the subject.
The Board assented and appointed the Chairman, Mr. W. E. Hill,
J.P., Col. Brown, and Mr. Benj. White, to act as such delegates,
Mr. Hill afterwards retiring in favour of Mr. Hendrichs, who
had previously been appointed a delegate on the subject. The
conference took place on the 1st March at the Guildhall, and
resolutions were passed expressing an opinion that the powers