The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-15 00:00:00

THE INCORPORkTION SCIIEME AT

STOURBRID GE.

The petition to "The Queen's Most Excellert
Majesty in Council" was lodged on Wednesday,
praying that a charter of incorporation may
.be
granted to the six townships which form the parish
of Oldswinford, and to the township of Wordsley
and the parish of Pedmore, "under the common
name of Stourbridge." This brings the popula-
tion of the district concerned within measurable
distance of the official enquiry rendered necessary
by such applicationa for municipal charters. and it
may be convenient to review the position taken up
by the prom ters of the scheme. At the outset, it
should be stated that the prime movers in the
' n,att:ir are the Stourbridge Improvement Coin-
, missionors, and if their petition succeeds they corn-
ple!.ely efface themselves. They are at present
twenty-seven in number, while under a charter of
incorporation Stourbridge would probably have but
six representatives at the most, and these representa-
tiveq would bepresuniably but a fourth of the whole
numb o• of the councillors. Although, therefore, Stour
bridge has been charged with self-s-3eking, in the
endeavour to secure a municipal form of govern-
ment, the town entirely subordinates itself to the
surrounding district, and is willing to accept the
posidon in which all minorities are placed. Instead
of assuming the dictatorial rule over the adjoining
toweships, which some profess to see as an outcome
of th a theme Stourbridge at the outset surrenders
all claim of control over these townships, and
makes them masters of the position. Whether,
under such circumstances, the charge of self-seek-
ing can be urged against, the promoters of incorpora-
tion the public will judge for themselves; but, on
the face of the thing, title refutation seems to be
needed. It has also been urged against them that
they have not tak n the public inLo their confidence
in proceeding with their scheme, and that the
townships affected by it bare not been consulted.
The public have, however, ratified the action of the
promoters by a large number of signatures to the
petition, and we understand that Mr. J. B. Shep-
herd, the legal adviser to the Commissioners, has
written to various gentlemen concerned in the op-
position, asking if he may meet them and discuss
the merits of the question; but, singular to say,
acceptance of this offer has been avoided, if the
offer itself has not been actually ignored. Even
the Rural Sanitary Authority of the Stout-bridge
Union, to whom Mr. Shepherd courteously made a
similar offer, passed it over, and without caring
to Lear his explanations passed a resolution. That
the Rural Sanitary Authority do signify their opinion
to her Majesty's Privy Council that it is undesir-
able for any of the townships uncl,r their control
te be included in the prop ,sed charter of incorpora-
tion." It is important to mention this resolution
of the Rural Sanitary Authority, as will be seen
subsequently. With regard to the opposition
generally, it may be stated that a strong feeling
of antagonism to the scheme at several meetino-s
called to oppose it in the townships around Stou7-
bridge, and committees have been formed, and
voluntary rates proposed to countermine it.

Petitions against the application have been pre-
pared, and no doubt it will not be difficult to get
many signatures to these in some parts of the dis-
trict. The issue does not, however, rest on the
number of signatures to petitions or counter-peti-
tions, but the crux of the matter lies in the case
the promoters have to present. At present, local
government throughout the district proposed to be
incorporated is split up into many fractional parts,
notwithstanding the unity of interest the differeat
townships really have. It is in fact, the pith of
one of the propositions laid down by the promoters
that the six separate townships in the parish of
Olfswinrord interested in the proposal form really
one town, with all the requirements and character-
istics of a town; and that Wordsley and Pedmore,
which adjoin, may be advantageously united with
the parish of Oldswinford under one system f
local government. A mere enumeration of the
several controlling authorities shows sufficiently
the anomaly of the present state of things. Stour-
bridge is governed by coal nissioners ; the five other
townships in Oldswinford parish—viz., Upper Swine
ford, Lye, Wollecc Amblecote, and Wollaston
—are each separately, for highway purposes, under
the control of highway surveyors elected at parish
vestries; gni Wordsley and Pedinore are similarly
situated. For sanitary purposes outside Stour-
bridge township, the Rural Sanitary Authority of
the Bromsgrove Union looks after Pedmore, and,
with this exception, all the other places named are
under the sanitary charge ef the Rural Authority
of the Stourbridge Union. As one consequence of
the division of authority which prevails, it may be
noted that three adjoining townshipse-Stourbridge
Lye, and Wollescote—haveseparate School Boards;
the other places for the purposes of elementary
education being looked after by the School Attend-
ance Committees of the Stourbridge and Brows-
grove Unions. There are also two Burial Boards
for adjoining parts of the district ; and owing to
the want of unification another new local authority
had to be called into existence recently—the Stour-
bridge Main Drainage Board. Even this last
body was not allowed to embrace the whole of the
district interes'ed in the main drainage, but owing
to the opposition raised were restricted to four
townships. Whether it is a desirable state of things
to have no less than eighteen separate authorities
in the Stourbridge district doing work which, in
the borough of Kidderminster, for instance is done
by three local bodies, is a question which seems to
admit of but one answer. True economy can hardly
be secured by such a multiplication of authorities,
and the aggregate waste of time and effort it re-
presents speaks for itself. It may be well to look
into facts to see if the petitioners are right in their
contention as to the urban character of the town-
ships outside Stourbridge itself. Leaving out
Stourbrilge, and also the Local Board districts of
Brierley Hill and Quarry Bank, there is sweep of
country under the control of the Rural Sanitary
authority of the Stourbridge Union 13,733 acres in
extent, and having a population of 51,998 at the
last ceasus. This extensive district has a larger
population than 181 of the incorporated boroughs
in the kingdom returning members to Parliament,—
of such cities, for instance, as Worcester, Gloucester
Lincoln, Exeter, Oxford, Hereford, and Chester ;
and it is greater also than the boroughs of Cam-
bridge, Reading, Chatham, Cheltenhatn, Hastings,
Wigan, Bury, Stirling, Falkirk, and Limerick. One
other remark on this point. The population of the
rural sanitary district of the Stourhridge Union,
which is in the West Midland division of the regis-
tration counties, exceeds that of three of the rural
sanitary districts in that division by more than.
20,000, and is mere than double that of the popu-
lation of each of the other seventy-three rural sani-
tary districts in the division. Some parts of the
rural sanitary districts are as much as nine miles
from the Board room where the Rural Sanitary
Authority meet ; and Rigdacre, for instance, in the
Stourbridge union adjoins Harborne, near Birming-
ham. What the promoters of incorporation pro-
pose is to withdraw from the Rural Sanitary
Authority a district of 2,865 acres, with 17,810 in-
habitants, in the parish of Oldswinford ; and 2,331
acres, with a population of 5,5.51 persons, in the
parish of Kingswinford ; and include it in the new
borough Even after the withdrawal of these dis-
tricts, there woul I remain subject to the Rural
sanitary Authority a district of 8,539 acres, with a
population of 28,632 pereons—a population larger
than any other rural sanitary district acts for in
the West Midland Counties except Burton and
Wolstanton. Stourhridge town-hip hes a popula-
tion of 9,757, and Pedmere of 490, and this would
make a total popula ion of the propose I new borough
of 33,613—i.e., taking the tigaree of the last census.
The rat e‘lalee value of this proposed municipal are
is .X 99,274. and it covers 7,059 acres. Of this
acreage the area of Stourbri ige alone is but 412
acres, and if the present conditiou of things was al
lowed to continue Stourbridge would be sentenced
for ever to remain the size of a moderate farm. It
is girt round by townships which are really part of
Stour.inidge though not nlminally so, and incor-
poration means making the ancient parish of Oil-
s.eiuford, now split into six parts, again one horn )-
geneons place for the purposes of local government,
with the addition of Wordsley and Pedmore. Toe
present form of local government, it is urged by the
promoters, ie net adequate to the increasing wealth
and population of the district, and the municipal
system, wh eh is recognised by all the great centres
of iutellectual and material activity as the best
that can be secured is, they see-, the one which the
interests of the population demand. Especial stres3
it may be noted. is laid on the sanitary raison &etre
of the present movement. A hint was thrown out
a week or two ago that Retires of serious import with
regard to the death-rate has of course, its counter-
part in the matter of sickness, though this may
not struggle to the surface in statistics. The peti-
tioners' case on this question of the health of the
district under the exis, ing order of thines cannotfail
to be of the highest importance and leaving regard
.to the course of similar enquiries elsewhere it is
hardly going :too far to anticipate that it will clench
the question of incorporation. !There are a number
of points in the petition which might be si ,gled out
fcr remark if our epa,ce admitted of it, bet we Inuit pass
over these with the general remark, that the com-
mercial, educational, and :other interests of the dis-
tricts are referred to in the petition, and that men-
ti,,n is made of the fact, that the Cotnmis.iouers,
,in ler the Act of 1366, tete p >wer to purchase he
works of the Stourbridge Waterworks Company and
the Stourbridge Gas Comptny. There has not been
much said on this point by the promoters, bat many
of the ratepayers of the neighbourhood attach great
weight to the transfer of these underteking,a to the
local authority. Tore as been so much benefit ac-
cruing to other localities from the a.cquisi.ionof gas
and water works by th governing be lies of bor-
oughs and towns throughout the country that ac-
tion in this direction would without a doubt be
supported by public opinion in the neighbourhood