No appeal is necessary to make the fact apparent to you, that the introduction of the Small Tenements’ Rating Act will tend to operate to the benefit of the Rate-paying interest of this over-taxed Parish.
Again, there is nothing visionary in the matter, it is plain and simple; evidences of its true benefits are visible right and left—Rowley and Sedgley.
Therefore, be prepared to attend the Poll at the Vestry of St. Thomas’s Church, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next; and honestly, fearlessly, and independently register your votes in favour of the Small Tenements’ Act, that must materially tend to benefit the poor and industrious of the Parish of Dudley.
A RATEPAYER,
One who has always cared for the Industrious Working Man!
This parish contest was not fought without much acrimony and ill-feeling, for the owners of small houses were not numerous in residence in the town, and those residing away took no interest in the matter. Result of the three days’ poll:—
| For the Adoption of the Act | 559 |
| Against “ “ | 276 |
| —— | |
| Majority for | 283 |
In concert with the action taken upon the introduction of the Small Tenements’ Act, it was deemed expedient that a new and more liberal Board of Guardians should be selected to manage our Poor Law business. Hitherto very little interest had been taken by the ratepayers in the administration of the Poor Laws in Dudley; and so long as Mr. Thomas Griffiths, a retired shoemaker and chairman of the board, chose to rule the too obsequious guardians with an ignorance of the real meaning and intention of the Poor Law Acts, it became evident that no real improvement or amelioration was likely to take place unless a new board of guardians was elected. It was also shewn that this gentleman was in the receipt of £30 a year as assistant overseer, a scandal which provoked much indignation at the time, and caused his ejection from the board at the next election.
As politics did not happily in those days enter into our parochial contests, change of public opinion resulted in change of our rulers, and the following candidates were presented for election:—
ELECTION OF GUARDIANS.