It seems that the Rev. Dr. F. G. Lee, whose
letter as to the increase of the Lambeth Free Library rate we noticed last week, was quite mistaken in saying that the large number of spoiled voting-papers was due to any organised scheme to get what were intended as negative votes cancelled by irregularity of form. Mr. Henry J. Smith, writing from the Vestry Hall, Kennington, says that of the 9,358 spoiled voting-papers, no less than 7,163 were purely blank papers, and had nothing written upon them at all, so that it is quite impossible to say that those who deposited these useless papers intended to vote against the increase of the rate. Only 2,195 were spoiled by irregularity of form, and of these there were a good many with " Yes " written upon them, as well as a good many with " No." Not so many as 1,500 in all were spoiled in this way, many of the others being spoiled simply by the absence of any signature. This appears to upset entirely the theory that there was an organised plot to deceive those who objected to the rate into making their opposition ineffectual. Whether Mr. Smith is right in treating the increase of the library rate as a vote in the interests of education, is quite another matter. Extended education would make an extended library rate effective, but whether an extended library rate would improve the existing standard of education is not so certain.
Previous page
