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5.—That your Petitioners humbly submit that no good cause for
the total abolition of the existing method of governing the Metropolis
has been shown, but your Petitioners admit that some alterations and
amendments may and probably would prove beneficial, especially in
the direction of giving more power and improving the Municipal
status of the present governing bodies.
6.—That your Petitioners humbly submit that, before passing such
a sweeping measure as the Bill would be, a searching enquiry should
be made into the present system, so that its defects may be discovered
end provided for in any change.
7.—That your Petitioners humbly submit that in their opinion if
such an enquiry were instituted, it would be found that any shortcomings
which there may have been, have arisen not so much from
any action, or want of action, on the part of the Local Authorities,
but from the want of more power in the Local Authorities, under the
laws which they have had to administer.
8.—That your Petitioners, without attempting to enumerate all
the defects in the Bill, would humbly instance that the proposal to
place the important duty of making and collecting rates, and the preparation
of the Valuation Lists, in the hands of the Overseers,
appointed under the Act of Elizabeth, and nominated by open Yestry
according to an Act of George III., in lieu of the Vestries, who are
the present rating authorities, is a return to an obsolete practice, is
legislation of a retrograde character, and would be productive of much
irregularity, confusion, and additional expense.
9.—That the Bill takes away the right of the Parishioners,
deliberately reserved to them by Parliament in 1876, to have thoir
Accounts audited by Auditors appointed by themselves (Sched., p. 93),
which is in itself an essential principle of Local Self-Government.
10.—That for these and other reasons your Petitioners humbly
submit that the Bill is objectionable in its present form.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that the said Bill may
not pass into Law as it now stands, but that such Amendments
may be introduced therein as shall secure to your
Petitioners the privileges, and maintain the principles of
Local Self-Government in their fullest integrity.
And your Petitioners will ever pray.
Sealed with the Common Seal of the Vestry this
Third day of July, 1884.
By Order,
ROBERT PAGET,
Vestry Clerk.