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The Vestry also again communicated with the Education
Department, urging the desirability of adopting the
Parliamentary Electoral Districts as the Electoral districts
for School Board purposes and the abolition of the cumuative
vote, and they also communicated with the Borough
Members asking them to support such views. Captain
Penton, in consequence, had an interview with Sir Henry
Holland at the Education Department, during the course
of which he was informed that a Parliamentary Committee
was appointed in 1884 to consider the question, that that
Committee did not draw up any report, but, from evidence
produced before it, it appeared that the system of cumulative
voting was the only system which ensured a due
representation of minorities, and that, without such due
representation of minorities, it would be very difficult, if
not absolutely impossible, to carry out the provisions of any
compulsory Education Act.
Sundry letters from other local authorities were received
on the subject, and in March, the Vestry, on the invitation
of the Greenwich District Board, appointed delegates to join
a Deputation to the Education Department in favour of
the alterations in the present system above referred to.
Coal and Wine Dues.—In May, 1886, the Vestry, in
view of the Coal and Wine Dues ceasing in July, 1889,
sent a communication to the other local authorities of the
Metropolis, expressing their opinion of the desirability of
the continuauce of these Dues as a fund for the preservation
of Open Spaces. Part of these Dues, which are of
long standing, have been allotted since 1862 to the Metropolitan
Board of Works for public improvements. They
have been renewed from time to time, and in 1868 they
were renewed till 1S89, chit fly to meet the expense of the
Thames Embankment at Chelsea, and for freeing from tolls
certain bridges over the Thames and Lee beyond the limits