The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-02-25 00:00:00

THE, STOURBRIDGE 013STIZVER.

The Chairman : I shall not.
Mr. Prescott: You have no right to allow him to be in
this room. This meeting is only for the attenduice of
the ratepayers.
The Chairman said Mr. Prescott had challenged Lire,
and he was qnite willing to bear the responsibility upon
himself of conducting the meeting as he thought proper,
and felt quite sure every gentleman present would back
him up. He should take care thst no one took part ia
the proceedings who wao not a ratepayer in the township
--(cheers).
Mr. Prescott: Has or has not Mr. J. Richards a right
to sit here as a ratepayer of the township ?
A Voice: He is not going to speak.
A Voice: He is rapping his stick.
The Chairman : I shall.
Mr. Prescott: I ask you if it is legal to allow anyone
to be present who is not a ratepayer ?—(confusion).
The Chairman: I shall not decide whether he has a
right to sit here or not—(kear, hear).
Mr. Prescott said he well remembered that his objec-
tions to the Burial Board were ridiculed as on the present
occasion; but the promoters were obliged to abandon
their object. The present meeting wets called under a
notice worded in precisely a similar manner, and he
would venture to say that if a School Board was elected
it would cost a large sum of money. There were eleven
scuts in the too s, and each sect would have a schoolmas-
ter, and they would not get a good toaster under XlOO por
year ; that would be 1.1,100. And then there world he
a clerk to be paid. He asked—would education clothe
the naked and feed the hungry? Was there not sufficient
school accommodation provided for them in Stourbridge?
Why should a few seek to carry out their particular
views, which would reduce the property of poor people
by one-fifth in order to pay for the education of children
whose parental were earning a better livelihood than
themselves ?

re-mths—(" Question" and "Order ") If the meeting
ltd been called in the evening many more people would
have attended, but they could not help themselves, and
he should advise them to either pass or negative it—
(cheers, and interruption). The Act was passed for the
benefit of the working classes, and he therefore thought
it ought to be adopted in their town—(cheers).
Mr. Sherrard observed that it was very desirable that
they should have a School Board, even if there was suffi-
cient accommodation in the town—(hear, hear). That
meeting would simply have to ask the Education Depart.
ment to give them a School Board. If they decided that
there was sufficient accommodation in the town, they
would not have a School Board. Under any circumstan-
ces he thought it almost certain that the Education
Department would decide that a School Board was neces-
sary, and he contended that it would be • great pity if
the reaolution was lost. He thought many more work-
ing men might have been present if they had so

Mr. Hicklin said he wished to ask what would be a fair
representation of the working men of the town
Mr. Ni:wnain : About 700.

Mr. Hicklin: Then 500 could have been here this
morning. . .

Rev. A. Rogers : If they had known.
Mr. Hiekliu : But it has been published.
Mr. Rogers: Not sufficiently.
Mr. Prescott : Are your foreman and workmen at woik
this morning, Mr. Hicklin ?

Mr. Hick : Yes they are, and they could have been
here if they liked.. . _