accrimonious(sic) and prolonged contentions over the drainage and the cemetery), because of its importance, and also for the reason that at the time of writing - forty years after the event - there is probably, not one in a hundred of the local population who is acquainted with the real merits of the case and the inevitable issue. I now turn to other proceedings of the Town Council for 1857.
The Mendicity
At the Council meeting on the 6th of February, a letter was received from the Rev. Thos Nightingale, soliciting aid for the Mendicity Society which had diminished vagrancy and rendered assistance to the police. The Clerk said there was certainly a much less sum then paid for the maintenance of vagrants by their not assembling at the police-station so much as formerly and there having to be lodged for the night and fed in the morning; yet to give money from the borough funds to the society would not be legal. Coun. Harvey said a similar application had been made to the Guardians, but they had no authority to dispense charity other than by means of the poor-rates. It was therefore resolved that the Council approved of the Society's operations, but had no funds by which they could assist.
The Cemetery
At the same meeting (Feb. 6th) it was ordered that Mr. J. Putland drain the surface of the Cemetery with 5 inch pipes at a cost of £150.
Objections to Expenses At the meeting on June 6th, the Finance Committee having recommended of £660 on the Burial Board account, in which there was an item of £77 for books, Coun. Picknell asked who ordered them? The Mayor (T. Ross) said all the books were requisite. There were three sets; one kept at Mr. Carpenter's, one at the Clerk's office and one at the Cemetery. Coun. Harvey considered that they ought not to have gone to such an expense for the register of burials, such register not being of use to the public, and not standing good in a court of law. It frequently came before him, in his capacity as Registrar of Deaths, that even a church register of burials would not be admitted in a court of justice. It was their duty to curtail their expenses as much as possible. There had been double and treble the number of books required since the passing of the Act, and to pay £77 for these particular books was enormous. He also objected to a bill of £68 for shrubs, and another of £40 for shrubs to be planted in the ground. There was also an extravagant bill of £8 for grass seeds. He could understand -
