View report page

I declare that the above is a true and complete return.
Signed, E. F.
Dated the day of 18
Prior to the passing of this Ad the Overseers in Islington had tried,
although with considerable difficulty, to provide for the registration of
occupiers of rooms in "Let Out" houses by special enquiry, but
immediately that Act came into force the Vestry adapted its rate books
to the requirements of the Act, and has since annually, at some expense,
issued the forms of return provided thereby, and caused the information
received by this means as to these occupiers to be entered in the
special column of the rate books provided for the purpose under the Act.
I now venture, with some hesitation, to place my own view of these
statutes and of the decisions upon them to which I have referred before
the Committee.
I take it that up to the year 1867 no person had any doubt as to
what constituted a "dwelling-house' either for rating or registration
purposes. Structural severance had up to that time always been
considered a necessity, although it might be secured by a vertical plane
as in the case of ordinary houses, or by a horizontal plane as in the
case of "flats."
Since that date the Legislature has by various statutes, relating
mainly if not entirely to registration, sought to enlarge the meaning of
the term by artificial interpretations until confusion (I had almost said
absurdity) has resulted. Parliament has said (to use the words of the
present Master of the Rolls in "Bradley v. Baylis" before referred to)
that "things are what they are not" or to put it in another way,