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19
Royal Academy of Arts.—In May, 1888, the
Vestry forwarded a Petition to the President and
Council of the Royal Academy of Arts, pointing
out that the necessity of daily labour precluded the
large majority of the working classes from visiting
art galleries and institutions of a kindred nature
during the hours at which they are ordinarily
open to the public, and asking whether, having
regard to the importance of bringing the refining
and educating influence of such institutions within
the reach of artizans, they would allow their galleries
to be open on Saturday evenings at the same
entrance fee, and during the same hours as they
are opened in the last week of the Exhibition.
The Vestry also invited the other Vestries and
District Boards to support their Petition, and
thirteen of them did so.
The Vestry, on the 9th August, received a reply
from the Academy stating that they have carefully
considered the matter, and hope to arrive at a
decision before the Exhibition for 1889.
St. James Churchyard.—The Vestry have had
before them from time to time the question of
laying out St. James Churchyard as an open space.
An Act passed in 1887, the Open Spaces Act,
defines the steps which are to be taken, which are
very lengthy and time-consuming. These steps
have however been taken, and at the close of the
period to which this Report relates considerable
progress had been made in the formalities necessary
before a faculty can be obtained for carrying out
the work.
Open Space St. John Street Road, near
Percival Street.—An old plan, dated April, 1816,
has been found during the year among some similar
documents in the Surveyor's office, “of the piece
of vacant ground situate between Northampton
Street and St. John Street Road, given up by the