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222
PART IV.
ANNUAL HEPOHT.
Lady-day, 1888, to Lady-day, 1889.
The Vestry have now to present their report for the past
year to the ratepayers of the united parish.
Monday, the 26th of March, 1888, will be remembered as
an important day in the annals of the local government of
Westminster. On this day came into operation the Act,
granted in the last preceding session of Parliament, being
the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, by which Act renewed
vitality was imparted to the local governing system of
Westminster. In the final report of the Board of Works
for the Westminster District, at pages 28 to 35, is recorded
the action taken by the United Vestries to obtain in the place
of a dual authority, one which should have the entire and
independent management of the local affairs, and which
should be directly elected by and responsible to the ratepayers.
The first meeting of the Vestry, as newly constituted,
took place on Wednesday, the 28th day of March, 1888,
when the Rector of St. Margaret's, the Venerable Archdeacon
Farrar, D.D., occupied the chair. The minutes of the last
meeting of the United Vestries on the 9th March, and of
the District Board on 11th March having been confirmed,
the Chairman addressed the Vestry as follows:—
This is, as you know, an exceedingly busy week for all clergymen,
and I shall be obliged myself to leave the Vestry at half-past
twelve for duties in my church; but, I should like to say, I
came here in order to have the honour of presiding on this very
important and interesting occasion. It is now 136 years since,
by the Act of the '25th year of George II., the United Vestry
of St. Margaret and St. John the Evangelist was constituted a