APPENDIX No. 10 LIGHTING.
Reading edition
To the Justices for the County of Middlesex.
The Memorial of the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea in the County of Middlesex,
Sheweth,
That an Act was passed in the Session of Parliament one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, intituled ‘An Act for Regulating Measures used in the Sales of Gas.’
By that Act provision was made for securing to every consumer of gas throughout the kingdom an accurate instrument of measurement for the gas he had to pay for, which was most grievously required by the community, and the means appointed for applying the benefits of that Act to the very large body of gas consumers in the county of Middlesex, is that the justices of the county should appoint an inspector or inspectors, and determine the number of copies of the model gasholders to be stamped at the Exchequer Office for the use of such inspectors.
In the Session of one thousand eight hundred and sixty another Act was passed, intituled ‘An Act to amend the Act for Regulating Measures used in the Sales of Gas,’ whereby the time for the previous Act to take effect, with respect to the appointment of inspectors and some other matters, was extended, and it was provided that the previous Act should not come into operation in any county in England until the magistrates of such county, in quarter sessions, should have resolved to bring such county under the operation of the Act.
Your memorialists are informed that the magistrates or justices of Middlesex have not only failed to take any steps whatever towards giving the metropolis the benefit of correct measurement of gas, but have absolutely refused to do so.
By the Amendment Act making the application of the law optional in counties as contradistinguished from boroughs it was only intended to relieve rural districts, where little or no gas is consumed, from the expense of having inspectors in those districts, but there is nothing in the Amendment Act to make it optional in boroughs; and your memorialists do not call upon the justices of Middlesex to enforce it in the rural districts, but in the densely populated metropolitan boroughs, and some parishes.
If the justices do nevertheless consider that the option of bringing the Act into operation in the metropolitan boroughs rests with them, the public necessity for it is so great that they are bound in the conscientious discharge of their magisterial duty to do all that is necessary for that purpose.
Your memorialists therefore respectfully suggest and fervently hope that your Worships will immediately proceed to carry into effect the said Act within the boroughs of Marylebone, Finsbury, Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Southwark, and City of Westminster, and parishes not included in any parliamentary borough, such as St. Luke, Chelsea, Hammersmith, and Kensington.
Given under the common seal of the said Vestry, this 21st day of May, 1861,
Chas. Lahee, Vestry Clerk.