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9
"there was no one left to protest against the management of the
"affairs of the parish."
"The Sanitary Committee had been suppressed, and no one
left to protest against the sanitary condition of the parish."
I will tell you what has been suppressed—
and that is the truth in the utterances of Sir Charles
Dilke. That statement is simply false. What are the
facts? Who have been the previous chairmen of the
Sanitary Committee? Mr. Leaver, Mr. Harrison, Mr.
Brighty. What are the records of the Minutes? I
have seen the printed minutes, and the written minutes
which were in existence prior to their being printed,
there has never been a recommendation of any value
whatever—which has been sent up from the Sanitary
Committee from the month of April in the year 1879—
(I have not gone further back) which has been rejected
by this Vestry. And I challenge anyone—I care not
who—to produce a single record in the history of this
Board where "the recommendations of the chairmen of
the Sanitary Committees have been vetoed year after
year." And I should like to know where the combination
of "house-farmers and publicans" has existed in
order to reject any one recommendation made. Take
one test case—and that is the secret of all the complaint
—viz., the non-adoption of the regulations of the Local
Government Board with regard to houses let out in
lodgings, or occupied by more than one family. If there
had been a combination of publicans and house-farmers
against those regulations it would be shown on the
Minutes. What is the fact? How many publicans
voted against the regulations? One! And yet there
was "a combination between publicans and housefarmers
to reject them." But the vote just referred to
was counterbalanced,as one publican voted on the other side!
There have been one or two cases in which the Vestry
have interfered with the recommendations of the Sanitary
Committee. In October, 1883, the Vestry carried an
amendment to give a larger salary to an assistant
Sanitary inspector than had been recommended by the
Sanitary Committee. And this is one of the cases in