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129
industrial kind, which are indicated by the Act as suitable objects
for the application of the surplus funds." And after referring to
proposals to establish similar institutions in South and North
London, the report proceeds—" The various proposals thus made
seem to point to the propriety of applying a large part of the
surplus funds to assist in the establishment throughout the
metropolis, of a series of institutions of this nature which, under
the regulating influence of the new governing body to be hereafter
created under the Act (and to which the management of the
general surplus will be entrusted) may be co-ordinated, and thus
rendered more efficient and more economical in their administration,
and which may extend their influence through other smaller
institutions to persons who are not yet, in respect of age or
training, competent to participate directly in their benefits."
With the above views of the appropriation of a portion of the
funds at the disposal of the Commissioners, your memorialists
beg to express their cordial concurrence, and they desire to assist
in the development of a scheme so broad in its scope and beneficent
in its object.
The necessities of the metropolis are so vast and varied, and
technical instruction in all branches of labour is so desirable,
that it is almost unnecessary to dwell upon the special need of
such instruction to the workers in the staple trades of Central
London, but your memorialists wish to refer to the industries of
clock and watch making and working in jewellery, which have
made Clerkenwell famous throughout the world, and your
memorialists cannot conceive an industry where technical
education could be of more value than in those on which so large
a proportion of the inhabitants depend for a livelihood.
The parishes represented by your memorialists have a population,
according to the census of 1881, of 151,988, or say 152,000,
on an area of 721 acres, showing a density of 211 persons to the
acre.
There are other parishes which might be included in Central
London, viz., those in the Strand and St. Giles's District, and
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which contain a further population of
95,267, on an area of 698 acres.
For this large population means of recreation are exceedingly
scanty, the only open spaces being the parks at the extreme
west, and Finsbury Park at the extreme north, and a great