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13
the Board during the past year. First and foremost in the
order of importance is the
LONDON GOVERNMENT ACT, 1899.
This Act, which received the Royal Assent on the 23rd
February, 1899, was briefly described in the last Annual Report.
Under and by virtue of its provisions the whole of the administrative
County of London will, as therein stated, be divided
into twenty-eight districts or areas, termed Borough Councils,
and take the place of twenty-nine administrative vestries (exclusive
of the Local Board of Health of Woolwich) and thirteen
district boards of works, the Parishes of St. Saviour, Christchurch,
St. George-the-Martyr, and St. Mary, Newington, being
grouped to form one of the Borough Councils under the new
administration.
On the day, therefore, upon which the members of the
Borough Councils come into office, that is to say, early in
November next, this Board will cease to exist as a sanitary or
local governing authority and the district will form part of the
new Borough of Southwark.
The Board, shortly after the passing of the Act, appointed
a Special Committee consisting of its Chairman (Mr. W. S.
Hale, J.P ), and Messrs. W. E. Hill, G. J. Newton, J. 0.
Devereux, and T. G. Young, to consider the various questions
arising under the Act, particularly those of the minor alterations
of boundaries and the nomenclature of the new Borough, and, in
accordance with a suggestion made by the Commissioners that
the local authorities concerned should confer together and
endeavour to come to a mutual understanding or agreement as
to such minor alterations, the Board appointed a Committee of
its members to attend a conference convened by the Vestry of
St. Mary, Newington, in order to carry out the suggestion, viz.,
the Chairman of the Board, and Messrs. W. E. Hill, T. G.
Young, W. Slatter, W. C. Such, and Col. Brown, together with
its Solicitor and Surveyor. Several Meetings of the Conference
took place, preliminary meetings of the Clerks of the several
rating authorities having, at the instance of Mr. L. J. Dunham,
the Clerk to the Vestry, been held at which the rateable values
and the boundaries were provisionally discussed and arranged.
Maps showing the suggested alterations were prepared and
supplied by Mr. Dunham to the delegates, and were found to
be of very great assistance in arriving at an understanding of the
matter. An early agreement was come to with the Vestry of
Lambeth's representatives so far as concerned the boundary
between Christchurch and that Parish; but the boundary