Page:Local taxation and poor law administration in great cities.djvu/23

19 sum in proportion to the amount of such sickness that ought to be provided for. Now the House will perceive at once that the amount of this grant being fixed, additional expense, whether caused by a greater number of sick being thrown upon the rates, whether by epidemics, whether by lax management on the part of the Guardians, or by other causes, would still fall upon the local rate. A system of thorough Government inspection would prevent the sick from suffering from dishonest parsimony. I have, for purposes of illustration, referred only to the case of the sick, but it will be seen at once that the principle is capable of application to any portion of Poor Law expenditure. And I should propose that the grants should be limited to a portion only of the minimum necessary expense of any department of the Poor Law dealt with, so that the balance, whether reduced by economy or swelled by extravagance, should still be borne by the body who would elect the local managers.

For this plan I claim no originality; its chief value I think is that it puts into a practical form suggestions which have been the result of the experience of much wiser men than myself.

The hon. Baronet the member for South Devon (Sir M. Lopes) referred especially to sickness, lunacy, and imbecility, as the subjects which might best be dealt with at any time when it was intended to relieve the inequalities of local taxation. The Metropolitan Poor Bill of the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for the University of Oxford (Mr. Gathorne Hardy) carried out in the Metropolis the principle of bringing to the aid of particular parishes grants from a wider source for the maintenance of persons suffering from sickness, lunacy, and imbecility. And I think no one could have read or listened to the speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wolverhampton (Mr. Villiers) without having been convinced that he was led by his great experience to advocate most strongly the strengthening of the permanent trained element in our Poor Law system, while I believe that the speech of the present President of the Poor Law Board (Mr. Goschen) fully sustains the proposal I now make. He spoke of the uselessness of attempting to carry out powers, however extensively conferred, for enforcing which no adequate machinery had been provided, and he also spoke of the importance of bringing about, if possible, a more cordial co-operation between the central board and the local authorities. Well, Sir, my proposal seeks to provide that machinery, and to bring about that co-operation.