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"His honourable friend knew how much sanitary regulations
"were needed with regard to tenement houses; and also that St.
"Pancras and Clerkenwell had refused to listen to the represen"tations
of the Local Government Board that they should pass
" sanitary bye-laws."
The Sanitary Committee expressed their great astonishment at these
statements, as being altogether incorrect, and without foundation, and
as they are directly and severely reflected upon, they have directed me
to state the real facts of the case. It is not the fact that " Chairman
after Chairman of the Sanitary Committee had again and again reported
in favour of Sanitary Reform," and "that their reports had been vetoed
"year after year by a majority of the Vestry, who were interested in
"the class of property which the Sanitary Committee would interfere
"with," and "that the Sanitary Committee had now been repressed,
"and that there was no one left to protest against the management of
"the affairs of the parish." On the contrary, the reports of the Sanitary
Committee have almost invariably been accepted and agreed to without
question. For instance, during the past year there have been
thirty-two Meetings, and only twice have their recommendations not
been adopted, one being a proposal to resort to other means to effect
the abolition of an underground water cistern after the case had been
tried at the Police Court, and had failed, and the other as to the
adoption of certain regulations suggested by the Local Government
Board with respect to houses let in lodgings or occupied by members of
more than one family; the Yestry considering, like many others, that
these were unnecessary, as the present sanitary laws were sufficient for
the purpose. In the previous year (1882-3) no recommendation of the
the Sanitary Committee was rejected. The Sanitary Committee has
not "been repressed," but is alive and in full activity. It regrets
exceedingly that you should consider that "the sanitary condition of
" the parish is not only a disgrace but a danger to the whole of the town,
" and that the Yestry is not fit to be trusted with such a position."
In a letter I addressed to you on the 20th of March last, I quoted
a Return made to the Metropolitan Board some time ago of works
carried out by the Yestry since its formation in 1856, to 25th March,
1881, showing that nearly £28,000 has been expended in sanitary
works alone. I also enclosed extracts from the Medical Officer's Annual
Reports on the general sanitary condition of the parish, shewing that
the death-rate had been steadily decreasing for years past, until it had
recently been reduced to between 18 and 19 per 1,000, and this, notwithstanding
an increase of population, while the mortality of all London
is 21 per 1,000. I also stated that—"The Vestry have established a
*%* The underlines were applied to those copies addressed to the Local
Governing Bodies of the Metropolis.