Two Sub-Commission sittings were heldment between the trustees and the at Kenmare in 1907. The latest sitting tenants of the estate. The Board are was held on 3rd October, 1907, at which all cases lodged prior to 1st April, 1907, were dealt with. Of the seventy-two cases referred to only thirteen remain unheard. A further sitting will be held at Kenmare at as early a date as possible, regard being had to the claims of other districts.

the

cruel in many of its administrative de- | measure as this, they must also bring tails. Very few of those who paid poor to bear common sense and business rates in this country were acquainted prudence to guide their footsteps. The with the manner in which their money Bill referred entirely to Ireland; and was spent. Very few of them had gone it would be interesting to know that to the trouble of entering the workhouses the first Poor Law Act for Ireland in order to see for themselves the con- was passed on 31st July, 1838. That ditions under which the poor of the Act was the groundwork of all the country lived in those institutions. He Poor Law Acts under which they were wished to cast no reflection whatever on living. The great famine in 1847 the officers charged with the administra- brought untold misery upon Ireland, and tion of the Poor Law throughout the numerous alterations were made and country, for they were a capable and very extensions effected in the Poor Law intelligent body of men; what he was in order to cope with that terrible referring to was the system which had time. About that period, or after grown up in the last seventy years in the famine, boards of guardians were Ireland, and the conditions under which permitted to give outdoor relief, and the officers of the Poor Law had to carry he believed that, at present, out administrative details. In the Bill state of the law in regard to outdoor which he was bringing before the House relief was exactly the same as when they did not pretend to go into details; it was first introduced. A Royal Comindeed, they could not formulate a mission on this subject presented a scheme which would meet all objections; Report to King William IV. in 1836, nor did they lay down any hard and and he would ask the House, if they fast rule, or sketch any scheme to which had not already done so, to consider what they asked the House to bind itself, that Report said. Seventy years ago a by setting to it the seal of its approval. Royal Commission inquired into the whole He made those remarks because what matter, and made recommendations was to follow was merely an outline or an which would astonish the House, for they indication of a desire which some of afforded a very interesting lesson on them had for the reorganisation of the this subject. That Commission recomwhole Poor Law system in Ireland, root mended land drainage and reclamaand branch. The largeness of the subject tion on modern lines, the provision of precluded him, in the first instance, from labourers' cottages and allotments, the dwelling upon its past history in order bringing of agricultural instruction to to set forth and describe the exact con- the doors of the peasant, the improveditions under which the Poor Law was ment of land tenure, the transfer of administered in Ireland in the present fiscal powers from grand juries to county day. He would approach the subject boards, the employment of direct labour not alone from the point of view of the on roads by such county boards, the present but of future generations, and sending of vagrants to colonies to be also from the point of view of the ap- employed or to penitentiaries in this pliances, improved scientific methods in country, the closing of public-houses all physical branches, from the point of on Sundays and the prevention of the sale view of the poor themselves, and of the of groceries and intoxicating drink in capacity of the people of various localities the same house for consumption on to bear the rates which would be necessi- the premises. That Report, was, untated under the Bill. They hoped the doubtedly, far in advance of its time, but rates would be no higher than hitherto, they could not but be struck by the fact but they trusted that they would greatly that, by the flux of time, nearly all those increase the possibility of securing pay- recommendations had been carried out, ment from those who were able to pay, some of them unwittingly, not by law, while attaining a sufficient amount of but simply by the good sense and work from all the able-bodied who found feeling of the people. He quoted the themselves in Poor Law institutions. Report because he wished to contrast He asked the House particularly to it to a certain extent with the Viceregal bear in mind that whilst charity must Commission's Report, in 1906, which temper their consideration of any such was the basis of the present Bill. Some

any

"It seemed to us that it would be our duty to ascertain how, if at all, a reduction could, without impairing efficiency, be made in the expenditure for the relief of the poor, and at the ment in the method or system of affording relief same time to show, if possible, how an improvemight be effected."

hon. Members might be inclined to say Lord-Lieutenant. And the next short that, taking the Report as a whole, it quotation was one one which had guided was Utopian; indeed, some hon. Mem them in framing this Bill. The Combers had already expressed that opinion. missioners said— He could not conceive how one, knowing that the recommendations of seventy years ago, which doubtless were considered Utopian in those days, had all come to be realised, could fail to give proper consideration to the recommendations of the Viceregal Commission-recommendations which might be considered Utopian, but which had the same chance of realisation as the recommendations made seventy years ago. The Report of the Viceregal Commission which showed that this was a

matter of grave national importance for
Ireland, had received widespread ap-
proval in Ireland, and the Royal Com-
mission now sitting-he spoke subject to
correction on the question of Poor Law
reform in the whole of the United
Kingdom, had decided to adopt the
Viceregal Commission's Report in toto,
in regard to Ireland. In his opinion, it
was most valuable to see that that
Commission had put the seal of
their approval to the Report of the
Viceregal Commission, and decided to
adopt it. It afforded conclusive evidence
of what was necessary for the ameliora-
tion of the condition of the
poorer classes
so far as Poor Law reform in Ireland
was concerned. He did not intend to
go further into the past. If further
evidence was necessary he would read
to the House a few extracts from what
the Commissioners said in their Report
of 1906. They said-

"We have inspected, as far as we are aware, all workhouses, county infirmaries, fever hospitals, and other hospitals in Ireland, maintained wholly or in part out of local rates. Moreover, for the purpose of reporting whether any further hospital accommodation for the sick poor is desirable, we visited and carefully inquired into the circumstances of those localities, including many islands off the sea coast, which are remote from any hospital. The number of witnesses examined by us was 743 and in nearly all cases our inspection of the various institutions concerned took place this way we were better able to understand the suggestions made, and to discuss the various local proposals with the witnesses."

before we heard the views of witnesses. In

So that they had there, at all events, a most complete inquiry on the spot by Commissioners appointed by the

That was the kernel of the Bill-how

an improvement in the method of afford-
ing relief might be effected, and how,
without impairing efficiency. He would
if at all, reductions might be effected
explain to those who were not familiar
with the intricate details of the subject,
inmates were gathered from all classes
that in the poorhouses of Ireland, the
of the deserving and undeserving poor,
and they were classified according to
law in a manner which he would explain
to the House. With few exceptions
the way in which they were classi-
fied was as follows:-The sick, the
aged and infirm, lunatics and all kinds
sane epileptics, un-
married mothers, infants, children between
infancy and fifteen years of age, casuals,
or ins-and-outs, vagrants and tramps,
and able-bodied
paupers. They had
to deal with 45,195 of all classes in 1905,
and the point which he wished the
House thoroughly to understand
that each of those classes which he had

of insane cases,

was

enumerated found a resting place in one or another of the workhouses in Ireland. The Commission reported

"We think that the present system of keeping so many different classes of persons in the same institution is one that ought not to be continued, and we received evidence throughout all Ireland strongly in favour of changing the system in this respect, provided that the rates would not be increased."

They had 159 union workhouses in
Ireland, and under the county system
there were thirty-four county infirmaries,
and fourteen fever or infectious
hospitals. A separate and very urgent
question was dealt with by the Com-
mission, namely, that of improvements
and isolation of
in the treatment
patients suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis or consumption. Although
they could not set up in
Bill a definite, clear, and cut-and-dried
scheme which would meet that terrible

the

disease in Ireland, still it had been one They said that independently of any other of their guiding principles in framing inquiry, they went into the whole matter the measure that consumption, one of as regarded Ireland alone, and no sooner the greatest evils in Ireland, should had they arrived at their conclusions on be properly dealt with. In considering the matter than they were informed that the lines which they should adopt, they Scotland had discovered after actual thought it only right, and he hoped that trial that the scheme worked admirably the House would bear this in mind, to in every part of the country. That allow local energy and local ideas and was testimony of the thoroughness and the sympathetic feelings of the people care with which the Report was prepared. to operate in their own particular way, Then he had obtained a few details and the Commissioners appointed under from the City of Belfast with regard the Bill would guide their efforts in to the expense of keeping children in the stamping out that disease in Ireland. workhouse, and he found that during the They all knew the great effort that had half-year ending 31st March, 1902, the been made to awaken the feeling of the number of children receiving indoor people of Ireland to the proper treatment relief in that city was 3,860. It was of the disease, and he believed one of the practically the same in 1907. The first effects of passing the Bill education of those children showed a would be to strengthen the hands very considerable waste of money. The of those who had the idea constantly average attendance of children in Belfast before them. He would pass from that workhouse for 1907 was 160. There were clause to the question of children who seven teachers, three male and four female, were born in workhouses or who found who received annual salaries amounting their way into them in their early years. to £505. They received first-class rations, The Bill would in such cases as were which amounted to about £40 a year, considered desirable extend the power of and their bonus brought it up to £93 11s. boarding-out children. He had gone to Thus the cost of educating 160 children the trouble of getting some information was £878 11s., or roughly, £5 10s. per on the subject. The chief committee, annum per child. If those children had, of course, been the Viceregal Com- were boarded-out, there was no doubt mission, and they, like anyone who had that they could be educated at much less read the Report, must have been particu- cost. By the boarding-out of children, larly struck by the statistics handed they would remove them from the to them from Scotland. In 1903, influence of hardened criminals in workand he believed there had been houses, and place them with chosen very little change in the figures families, not necessarily the very best. since then, there were 7,110 children families in the district, but in families in receipt of relief in Scotlard, of which number 6,195 or 87 per cent. were boarded-out, 1,800 with relations and 4,395 with strangers. The balance of 915, which was a very small percentage, were mainly in poorhouses, some sick and infirm, and others waiting to be boardedout. The Commissioners had arrived at the view in favour of boarding-out children as far as possible before they saw the figures in Scotland, but they felt much strengthened in their opinion by what existed there. They also said that the system was similar in its plan of management to that adopted in Ireland by the Protestant Orphan Society, whose reports were most favourable as regards the condition of the children. They had there what he considered to be most valuable testimony from the Commission.

of such respectability, at all events, that by associating with the children of the family, they might grow up and become creditable citizens, whereas now in the workhouses they were shut out from a great deal of the human side of life, and went from bad to worse, and, being born and bred in the workhouse, were very apt to live the greater part of their life there and to die there. By being taken from the workhouse and placed in families where they could be properly looked after, and have some home life and associations, they were prevented from becoming criminals and probably being put on the rates for the whole of their natural lives. There was economy in the boarding-out principle outside the question of education altogether. Taking