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THE VESTRY
OF
The United Parish of St. ,Margaret and St. John
the Ebangelist, Westminster.
ANNUAL REPORT
For the Year ended Lady-day, 1891.
WHEN it is remembered that the only materials available
for the annual report of a Vestry are such
as can be gleaned from a well-worn track, laid out on
statutory lines, it is scarcely surprising that such reports
are "as tedious as a twice-told tale vexing the dull ear
of a drowsy man." To this unavoidable character may
be attributable, perhaps, the fact that only eleven ratepayers
out of the 8,800 have purchased copies in each of
the last three years. An attempt is made from year to
year to summarise in these publications the principal
transactions of the local administrative body, to offer a
resume of the matters affecting the health of the parish,
and to submit the accounts in such a form as to show
how every penny of the rates collected has been disbursed;
and the fact that the report is obtainable at the nominal
charge of two-pence is brought to the knowledge of every
householder by a memorandum added to the rate demandnotes.
To ascribe this small demand for information to
apathy or indifference, would be a reflection upon the
constitutional principle of local self-government, so dear to
all English citizens; but there are other causes which may
have contributed to it. Thirty-five years ago the facilities,
now so abundant, for obtaining knowledge from the weekly
journals circulating in the parish did not exist, and the
business of the local boards was transacted with closed