View report page

9
to informality, but in regard to Bolton Court, the owner
submitted his claim to the Vestry, which was not acceded to,
and an Arbitrator, Mr. E. C. Driver, was appointed by the
Local Government Board to adjudicate upon the matter, and
his award was received by the Vestry on the 25th March.
This closed the proceedings so far as the year now under
view is concerned.
While on this subject, a short resume of an Act passed in
the Session of 1885, the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, so far as it concerns this Parish, may not be out of place.
The first part of the Act provides for the adoption of
the Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts, 1851 to 1867,
by the Commissioners of Sewers for the City, and by the
Metropolitan Board of Works for the rest of the Metropolis,
subject to the approval of the Home Secretary. These
Acts give power to Town Councils and Local Boards to
provide lodging houses for the working classes, and to
borrow money for the purpose from the Public Works
Loan Commissioners for a period of forty years. The
expenses are to be defrayed out of the Dwelling House
Improvement Fund, under the Artizans' and Labourers'
Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875; and power is given to
the Treasury to sell the sites of Millbank and Pentonville
Penitentiaries, and to the Middlesex Magistrates to sell the
sites of Coldbath Fields Prison or the House of Detention,
to the Metropolitan Board of Works, at a fair market
price. Clause 11 appears to define the market price to be
the best that can reasonably be obtained, having regard to
the purpose to which the land is to be applied.
An important amendment is made in Torrens' Acts by
clause 4, which takes away the power of an owner, who
has been called upon to execute works, or to demolish any
premises, to require the local authority to purchase such
premises.