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the committee any direction thereon, and your committee find that a
resolution was passed on the 23rd day of April, 18G1, as follows:—
"That it be an instruction to the Vestry Hall committee, that in
"any steps which they may take towards providing a Vestry Hall,
"to make provision for the accommodation of a large number of
"Parishioners, (say 800 to 1,000), at Vestry and other meetings
"relating to the affairs of the Parish."
Your committee in considering how to give effect to this instruction,
found that it would be necessary to provide two Vestry rooms, as the
large Hall would be inconvenient for ordinary Vestry Meetings, and a
room constructed for Vestry uses only, would be altogether unfitted
for many public purposes connected with the Vestry and Parish,
and inhabitants thereof, and they concluded that the best course would
be to provide a smaller Hall, which they have denominated the Council
Chamber, and a larger Hall, denominated the Public Hall.
The plans herewith submitted for the approval of the Vestry, provide
for a Public Office, Vestry Clerk's, Surveyor's, and Accountants's
Office, Office and Laboratory for the Medical Officer and Chemical
Examiner, Rate Clerks' Offices, Committee Rooms, Library, Sessions
Room, Appellants Waiting Room, Council Chamber and Public Hall,
beside the necesssary Rooms for Hall Keeper, Stores, Strong Room,
Stokers and Furnace Room, &c., and considering the present amount of
business devolving on the Vestry, and the continued increase of its duties,
yearly imposed by successive Acts of Parliament, no less than the accommodation
thus proposed to be provided, will meet the requirements
of the Parish for all present purposes, and the probable contingencies
of years to come.
The question of cost also involves that of the design of the front and
the material to be used. The Committee have considered it necessary
that the design should be such as would indicate the public character of
the edifice, not extravagantly ornamental, but of a substantial and durable
character. They have rejected a mixture of brick and stone, which,
however pleasing in its appearance in rural or suburban districts, is