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:--