The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-15 00:00:00

THE

belong to them. There are 1,804 able-bodied adult
persons receiving out.door relief. They are divided in
this way : 93 are men, 1,677 females, and 34 non-resident
poor. Now, 93 males form, by no means, a very great
number receiving relief out of doors in a population of
upwards of 270,000. (Hear, hear.) Moreover, the great
probability is that, if you examine your relieving officers on
this point, you will find that most of these persons have
been bad from sickness, or that something has
occurred in their families which has suddenly obliged
the relieving officer to step into the lodging or the
cottage of these poor persons, and give them immediate relief.
No doubt they ought to be tested with the workhouse, if they
require it. lam sorry to be obliged to say that, throughout
the whole of this district, from circumstances which you will
all understand, our able.bodied population, in the receipt of
ample wages, many of them are in the habit of throwing
themselves on the rates almost immediately on becoming out
of work, or falling sick lam afraid that there is a very
considerable degree of drinking going on in this great district ;
and, of course, although this does not affect society generally,
still there are many families who, in consequence of a little
economy and foresight, and looking out for a rainy day, throw
themselves upon the rates, almost immediately upon being out
of work, or sick. It would be an excellent thing that the
relieving-officers should keep their eyes upon one or two
of the families who throw themselves so rapidly upon the rates,
and, by testing them with the workhouse, have some means of
checking the habit. It would be, of course, a great deal to
throw nine or ten persons into the workhouse suddenly ; but
still it would be an advantageous rule, because the neighbour-
hood would learn that the guardians would not limit the
bringing of any number of a family into the workhouse, if it
were requisite. I have shown you that a great number are
females, 1,677, and of these, I dare say a great many are
widows, with what are called long families ; and when that
is the case, no one, I fell sure, could wish to bring a
widow with a family into the workhouse, if she cannot
support herself. (Hear.) It is not her fault, generally, and if
she is living the life she ought to live, there can be no necessity
for testing her or her children with the workhouse. Now, I
have gone through the whole of the figures connected with
your town, and have shown you the numbers and the cost
of pauperism for some few years back. I have some other
figures to lay before you of a more general character. I have
brought before you the cost for the relief of pauperism, but
there are many other expenses connected with Liverpool not
for relief of pauperism. There is a building account, there
are salaries for officers, a funeral account, and a variety of
other things. Now, just take one year. I have before me a
table containing seven years of expenditure. I shall lay it on
your table, and it will not be requisite to read it through ; but
I shall give you now that of the year 1856 to show you what I
mean. The total receipts from rates for the year 1856 were
£132,068, the total expenditure f►om that amount was
£110,928, therefore there is a balance due, of course, to the
Vestry, which, no doubt, is in the hands of their bankers.
Now, the question is, how was that money spent ? It was
spent in this way—The amount spent in maintenance, including
the relief of irremoveable paupers in the house, was £28,910 ;
the amount of out-relief, including the cost of lunatics
and asylums, funerals, and other matters, was £39,763 ;
other expenses, including emigration loans, salaries of
officers, and all other charges of the kind, exclusive
of relief given to irremoveable paupers, £31,685. These
figures altogether show that in that way there has been spent
£100,359. A few other expenses also are connected with
it ; there have been vaccination fees, £539 ; registration fees,
£999 ; local rates, £3,803. These sums together will make
(if you add the odd shillings, which I have not mentioned)
£110,928 expended for 1856. I have now given you all the
information I can give you with regard to the Vestry—every-
thing I know myself. The only place you can be compared
with fairly in this great district is the city of Manchester.
You run upon such a complete equality almost at all times
with Manchester as regards the per centago of your pauperism
to your population, and the cost per head, that you may almost
be said to be on an equality in all points. Ido not think
either one or the other can be sail to exceed in either way.
It sometimes happens that you have a sudden decrease of pau-
perism, and it may happen that Manchester has a sudden
increase, or the contrary, but, taking one year with another,
they are quite on a par. The salaries paid in your town and in
Manchester can be covered by a very small amount of collec-
tion on the rates, notwithstanding the very heavy sum expeuded
in each place. I believe the nett rateable value of Liverpool
to be upwards of £1,060,000. Now, a very small amount of
levy would, of course, upon that large sum, produce a great
aer of thousands. The salaries to the officers of this
or Manchester can be got by a levy of 1 tid once collected
d once collected on the nett rateable value would pay
officer the Vestry employed. The amount expended for
relief amounts very nearly to is in the pound—ls to the poor
and lid to the officers is about the proportion in which you
and INlanchester manage your salaries and your poor. There
re other expenses, for, of course, a levy of is ld would not

expenditure

Mr. Woodruff asked if the salaries paid in Manchester were
not rather heavier than those in Live:pool ?
Mr. Fatuall: Yes. Manchester rather exceeds in the per
tentage of salaries. I have only in conclusion to congratulate
you, that in this great district at the present moment, there are
no more than three people in every hundred receiving relief.
(Hear, hear.)

. .
Mr. Woodruff moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Farnall for
the very satisfactory statement he had made.
The motion was seconded, and unanimously adopted.
Mr. Farnall then expressed his acknowledgements to the
board and withdrew.