PART IV. 
Our Local Authorities. 
By A. W. Hiscox, 
Sometime Mayor of the Borough. 
=> 
7 Aaa HE man in the street is generally supposed to have 
, & (gis) an opinion about most things, and he usually 
A ° 
believes he could govern far better than any 
persons in office, from Town Councillor up to 
Prime Minister. Yet, how few people can give 
a fair idea of the organization for governing the 
town they live in, or, if they do know in general terms what 
governing bodies rule in the locality, can describe how they came 
to take their present-day form, and why. 
Unless local government is to be more and more officialized, 
the old English idea of self-government will have to be widely 
revived in practice. That is to say the people themselves, as a 
whole, not only a small section, must learn what takes place 
under the powers that be, and they must then express their own 
views, as occasion demands, on the methods and the work done 
by those in authority for the community, which is represented by 
them. 
Local government in Lewisham, as in other parts of London, 
has been in the hands of so many different bodies, that probably 
few people in the past cared to spend the necessary time to find 
out what they were and what were their functions. Though some- 
what simplified in recent years, the task is still no easy one, and 
the authorities controlling Lewisham, and supplying its needs 
municipally, are more numerous than most people suspect. 
Imagine a visitor entering our Borough by tram from London. 
Coming into Lewisham, via Loampit Hill, and travelling along the 
High Street or High Road, Lee, the rider benefits by the provision 
of electric transit made by the County Council, while the streets he 
passes through are paved, cleaned and lighted by the Borough 
Council. If he goes along the High Street he sees a Public 
Library, with lending department, reading rooms, etc., maintained 
by the Borough Council, and, further on, a big institution, which 
inhabitants as a rule avoid, and which, under the name of Work- 
house, supplies a home to some hundreds of men and women 
unable to support themselves. The latter is controlled by the Union 
Guardians, as is also the next large building, the well-known, 
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