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and requirements, and of rendering the general sanitary
administration of the parish more efficient," each subsequent
annual report has struck a note, if not of despair, at any rate
of disappointment. The Committee have been determined,
nevertheless, to carry out the reference to a successful end.
As soon, therefore, as the Vestry had accepted a tender of
£9,000 for the services, with the free use of Millbank-wharr,
for another twelve months (referred to in the last annual
report of the Vestry), the Committee in July, 1890, deputed
their vice-chairman "to make enquiries with reference to
the possibility of obtaining a suitable wharf." In the
same month Mr. Horn reported verbally certain particulars of
a wharf likely to meet all the requirements of the Vestry,
and the surveyor was instructed to report thereon. This
report, which gave many details of the premises, was presented
to the Vestry in September, but the name and situation
were withheld by the Committee unless and until the
Vestry ordered their disclosure, in order that organised
opposition might be avoided. An attempt to elicit these
particulars was defeated on a division by 34 to 8, and the
Vestry, relying confidently on the assurances of the acting
chairman of the Committee and of the surveyor, resolved
to purchase the leasehold interests of the occupying tenants
for £6,000. In this manner the Vestry acquired on the
23rd December, 1890, the wharf in Grosvenor-road known
as "the Millbank slate works," having a river frontage of
142 feet and a superficial area of about 5,000 feet. The
"ring" broken, the remaining work of the Committee was
easy. Loans of £6,000 (purchase-money of wharf) and
£5,100 were obtained of the London County Council,
to enable the Vestry to adapt the new premises, by structural
alterations, to their requirements, and to purchase horses,
slop-vans, dust-vans, water-vans, sweeping and scraping
machines, harness and other necessary plant and implements.
The Committee were entrusted with all the powers of the