respect of the former half-year to the Boards of Guardians of the poorer Unions in the Metropolis, and £459,928 in respect of the latter half-year.

There was also a claim from the poorer Metropolitan Boroughs for an extension of the principle of equalisation of London rates already recognised under the Equalisation of Rates (London) Act, 1894. An extension of the scope of the Act was vigorously opposed by the richer Boroughs pending the report of the Royal Commission on London Government, and it was eventually agreed as a compromise that the scope of the Common Poor Fund should be enlarged temporarily so as to increase the capitation rate payable in respect of inmates of Poor Law institutions from fivepence to one shilling and threepence per day, and to include the cost of out-door relief, subject to a scale and conditions to be prescribed by the Minister of Health.

The Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, which was passed on the 10th November, 1921, gave legal effect to this arrangement. The Act also authorised the charging to the Fund of interest upon sums borrowed for the purpose of defraying any expenses repayable out of the Fund.

In accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Minister, after submitting a draft to the Boards of Guardians concerned, issued on the 4th January, 1922, regulations prescribing a scale and conditions determining the limits within which the cost of out-relief might be charged to the Fund. These regulations were based on a consideration. of the whole of the scales in operation in the Metropolis, and in forwarding them to the Boards concerned the Minister expressed the view that while payments in excess of the scale might be made at the cost of the local rates, such deviations should not ordinarily be necessary. Though in certain Unions the Guardians continue to avail themselves somewhat widely of their discretion under the regulations and afford relief in excess of the scale, or in contravention of the regulations, at the cost of the local rates, the issue of the regulations has resulted in a considerable approximation to uniformity of administration among the majority of the Unions in the Metropolis.

In London, as in the provinces, advantage has been taken of the provision in the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, 1921, authorising the borrowing of money to meet current expenses. Moneys. borrowed under the Act are to be repaid out of revenue received in respect of the financial year in which the loan is raised, and accordingly in the poorer Unions, which will eventually receive substantial sums from the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund, such loans, to the extent of the sums so receivable, have automatically a currency of nearly a year, and it has not been necessary in any case to allow a longer period than this. Temporary borrowings to a maximum amount of £750,250 have been authorised in ten Unions.

In the case of the Parish of Poplar Borough the borrowing of £146,250, the estimated amount receivable from the Common Fund, proved insufficient to carry the Guardians through the half-year just ended. Application was accordingly made for sanction to a further loan. Simultaneously the Guardians passed a resolution for the increase of the scale upon which relief was being paid by them not only up to, but beyond, a scale demanded by an organisation claiming

to represent the unemployed of the parish. This resolution was, owing to the discovery that sufficent funds were not available, rescinded at the next meeting of the Guardians. In view of the high rate of pauperism and of expenditure in the parish, the Minister decided that a special investigation should be made with a view to the securing of any economies compatible with efficiency. The Commissioner appointed to hold the inquiry was Mr. Henry Isherwood Cooper, Clerk to the Guardians of the Bolton Union. This inquiry was still proceeding at the end of the financial year, but it may be stated that the Guardians have since been unable to raise from their ordinary sources a loan authorised in respect of expenditure in the financial year 1922-23, and have submitted an application to the Committee presided over by Sir Harry Goschen, K.B.E.

By arrangement with the Board of Education, a survey of the industrial instruction afforded in Metropolitan Poor Law Establishments has been completed, and the results of the survey are under consideration.

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES FOR RELIEF.

The acute unemployment of the past year has led in a number of areas to the collection of considerable voluntary funds for the assistance of distressed persons of a class which has not ordinarily in the past resorted to the Poor Law. It is much to be regretted that the effect of the adoption by the Guardians of what is known as a liberal policy has generally been to limit or even destroy this form of help. This is the more unfortunate since in suitable cases there are opportunities for the giving of effective assistance which is not within the legal powers of the Guardians, and further it remains true that to save an applicant from contact with poor relief is in the great majority of cases to minimize the moral deterioration which in some degree is a necessary result of even a temporary loss of independence. Nothing but harm can result from a competition of private charity with Poor Law relief, but on the principles laid down so long ago as 1869 in the memorandum published by the Poor Law Board over Mr. Goschen's signature, there is ample scope for both, working in co-operation and in their respective spheres. It may be pointed out that in one coalmining Union (Basford) in which the Guardians have declined to depart from the provisions of the Relief Regulation Order, 1911, and the numbers in receipt of poor relief have remained practically constant throughout the year, distress has been prevented by voluntary funds. and organisations largely managed and arranged by the unemployed persons themselves. Similarly in the Redruth Union the expenditure of the Guardians in the relief of distress due to unemployment amounts to £5,000, but a sum of no less than £40,000 has been expended from voluntary sources. But it cannot be expected that persons required to contribute heavily through the rates for the relief of distress will generally be willing also to assist voluntary funds which have the same end in view, and the voluntary schemes that have been initiated have as a rule come to an end with the extension of the Guardians' action.

Reference has already been made to the circular letter (Circular 261) issued to call attention to the importance of close co-operation between the Guardians and other relieving agencies.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE.

As has already been mentioned, expenditure upon schemes designed primarily to supply work for unemployed persons has formed the bulk of the capital expenditure sanctioned during the year. Apart from such schemes expenditure on Poor Law premises has, in view of the need for economy, been kept to the lowest practicable figure. The total number of instruments issued during the year authorising expenditure upon structural improvements or extensions was 196, and the total expenditure involved was £429,735. The corresponding figure for the previous year was £765,882.

Loans were sanctioned in respect of £315,212 of the expenditure authorised during the year.

Further loans were sanctioned to the amount of £34,887 in respect of expenditure authorised before the commencement of the year under review.

The total amount of loans for Poor Law works sanctioned during the year is thus £350,099 as against £550,418 last year.

COST OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIEF.

The statements prepared for the district of each General Inspector indicating the average weekly cost per head of relief to persons in institutions provided by Boards of Guardians during the financial year 1920-21, are disappointing in that they still show a considerable variation of cost as between institutions which might be expected to show greater uniformity.

The average weekly cost* in the several districts of maintenance in general institutions (excluding those with separable infirmaries) varied from 35s. 11 d. and 32s. 53d. to 21s. 9d. and 23s. 61d.; that in infirmaries administered under separate regulations from 68s. Od. and 61s. 2 d. to 32s. 31d., 32s. 81d. and 38s. 31d; that in separate schools (other than grouped cottage homes) from 34s. 4d. and 34s. 2d. to 19s. 10 d. and 22s. 54d.; that in grouped cottage homes (other than schools) from 33s. 6d. and 31s. 1d. to 15s. 6d., 19s. 5d. and 19s. 7d.; and that in scattered homes from 27s. 6d. to 18s. 6d.

It is clear that in some at least of the Unions in which the costs are substantially above the average there must be room for appreciable economies to be effected.

As was mentioned in last year's Report, the classification of children's institutions was improved after the issue of the statements for 1918–19, and this fact should be borne in mind when the above rates are compared with those specified in the last Report.

POOR LAW INFIRMARIES.

During the year under review the relief of distress due to unemployment has tended to check the tendency, mentioned in last year's Report, to an enlargement of the usefulness of the Poor Law infirmaries

The amounts given cover, in addition to the cost of the provisions, clothing, drugs, etc., supplied to the poor in the institutions, the salaries and other remuneration of the officers of the institutions, the cost of the upkeep of buildings and furniture, and rates and insurance. Loan charges are not included.

by the reception on payment of the full cost of a class of patients who would not in former years have had recourse to the Poor Law. Even so there has been considerable activity in this direction, and the administrative problems arising have required careful consideration.

In two cases arrangements have been made whereby special facilities provided by one Board of Guardians are available for suitable cases chargeable to other Unions. The cases are those of Droitwich and St. Marylebone, the facilities at the former being for treatment at the brine baths, and at the latter for the most modern treatment of arthritis.

The scarcity of suitable candidates for the post of nurse in the rural institutions and for that of probationer nurse in the training infirmaries is still serious.

EMIGRATION.

Reference was made in last year's Report to the revised terms upon which the Joint Committee of the National Relief Fund and Oversea Settlement Committee agreed to provide grants in aid of the oversea settlement of Poor Law children in cases where hardship arising out of the War could be shown to exist. Those terms were communicated to Boards of Guardians on the 30th May, 1921.

During the year 1921, 354 persons, including 237 orphan or deserted children, were assisted to emigrate by Poor Law Authorities at a total cost to the poor rates of £11,210. These numbers are higher than those for the year 1920, which were 329 and 214, but they still fall a long way short of the pre-war figures. During the ten years-1904 to 1913 the average number of persons assisted yearly to emigrate by Guardians was 843, and of these the children emigrated to Canada averaged 472 yearly. In 1914 the total was 628, while during the War and up to the end of 1919 only 257 persons in all were assisted to emigrate at the cost of the poor rates. Thus this form of emigration in the six years 1914 to 1919 only accounted for 885 persons, while the actual number for 1913 was 987. The number of persons emigrating to Australia has, however, increased from sixteen in the calendar year 1920 to 33 during the year 1921, probably as a result of the increased facilities afforded by the Commonwealth Government. Of the persons emigrating during the year 1921, 301 went to Canada, 33 to Australia, five to New Zealand, three to South Africa, six to the United States, and six to other places. During the last three months of the financial year 126 persons emigrated at the cost of the poor rates, 69 going to Canada and 46 to Australia.

Arrangements are under consideration for a closer co-ordination of the work of the Department with that of the Oversea Settlement Committee.

The remarks made by His Grace the Duke of Devonshire in his Presidential Address to the Central Poor Law Conference, and the subsequent discussion, in which emphasis was laid on the fact that, notwithstanding the war casualties, the population of this country is much larger than it would have been had emigration been on the normal scale in the years since 1913, have drawn the attention of Guardians to the question of emigration generally, and there is a growing disposition to recognise the direct and indirect bearings on the problem

of unemployment of an increase in the number of settlers from this country in the Colonies. The closure of industries in certain parts of the country in which no alternative occupation is likely to be forthcoming has also led to local discussion of the prospects of adult emigration.

For various reasons the extent to which it has ever been, or is likely to be, possible for Guardians to assist adult emigration is small, but the case is different as regards children. In the years before the War the adults assisted by the Guardians formed a trifling proportion of the total volume of emigration, but from one-sixth to a quarter of the children sent to start life in Canada were children under the care of Guardians. In their Report for the year 1921 (Cmd. 1580) the Oversea Settlement Committee point out the advantages of the settlement overseas of the young, and draw attention to the fact that arrangements are being made in Australia for the reception of children on the lines of those which have been so successful in Canada. The Committee refer to the possibility of an annual settlement overseas of from 10,000 to 15,000 children. Assuming Guardians to take the same share in the movement as before the War, this would mean an increase in the numbers sent by them to more than 2,000 annually.

VAGRANCY.

The number of casuals relieved in England and Wales on the night. of the 1st April, 1921, was 5,577, and in spite of fluctuations no serious increase was recorded until the 22nd July, when the number reached 7,874. The maximum of 8,989 was attained on the 16th September, when a decrease began which brought the figure to 6,813 on the 10th February, 1922. The number had risen to 8,285 by the 24th March.

From July onwards the figures are generally in excess of the prewar figures, and it is clear that the unemployment crisis forced upon the road a substantial number of genuine seekers for work. There are, however, indications that the younger men on the road have deteriorated, and that many of the applicants are not now really in search of work.

The paucity of vagrants during the war had apparently led many Boards of Guardians to regard the problem as no longer one of practical importance, and there have been cases in which the Guardians have been unwilling to reopen casual wards which had been closed but are again needed.

The essential point of any effective system for the relief of vagrancy is a reasonable uniformity of treatment. Partly as a result of the war conditions, there is an extraordinary discrepancy of methods as between the several Unions. This is the more serious in view of the probable further increase in vagrancy during the coming summer. It is understood that the subject is receiving the attention of the Vagrancy Committees.

There can be no doubt that a greater approximation to uniformity as regards food, duties, accommodation, hours of labour, and times of detention of vagrants is easily possible with no increase in the burden

There is a growing tendency to discharge every vagrant on the morning after his admission, and many Boards of Guardians even discharge vagrants on Sundays.