View report page

17
garden or recreation ground, and may hand it over to the
City Corporation or the Metropolitan Board of Works for
preservation and management.
Inasmuch as the only portion of the site definitely
mentioned in the Bill as being reserved for an open space
was the Burial Ground, which covers about half an acre
out of the five and a half of which the site consists, the
Vestry felt that some effort should be made to induce the
City Corporation or the Metropolitan Board of Works to
acquire the site or a large portion of it, and they therefore
communicated with the Governors of the Charity, calling
attention to the desirability of preserving the greater
portion as an open space, asking them to extend Clause 5
for the purpose, and they also presented a petition to the
same effect to the House of Commons. The Bill was
however withdrawn.
Metropolitan Board of Works (Keeping of Firewood)
Bill.—The object of this Bill was to enable the Metropolitan
Board of Works to make bye-laws for the safe keeping of
firewood, and to provide that no person shall keep firewood
for sale above an aggregate quantity of two thousand cubic
feet, without a license from the Board, under a penalty of
£20 a day.
The Vestry had before them a communication from
the Firewood Merchants' Association, submitting reasons
against the passing of the Bill, first, that the proposed
restrictions are unnecessary, and secondly, that the passing
of the Bill would practically drive the trade away from
the Metropolis, and throw a large and industrious class of
persons out of employment.
Having considered the subject, the Vestry resolved to
present a petition to Parliament against the Bill as being
an unnecessary and vexatious interference with a struggling