The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-16 00:00:00

Lancashire Central Relief Committee.

The weekly meeting of this committee was hold on Mon
day—the Earl of Derby in the chair.
_ _

The Hon. Secretary reported that £149 3s 3d had been
received during the week, and that the balance in the bank
was £299,853 lis sd. Three packages of clothing had been
received during the week, and two had been sent off.

Mr. FARNALL read the following report :—" I beg to in•
form you that on the sth inst. there was a decrease in the
number of persons receiving parochial relief in 27 unions
in the cotton manufacturing districts, as compared with the
number so relieved in the previous week, of 1,669. This
decrease of 1,669 is explained as follows :—Thero is a de-
crease at Ashton-under-Lyne of 592; Barton-upon-Irwell,
28 ; Blackburn, 48 ; Burnley, 48 ; Bury, 119 ; Chorley, 21 ;
Chorlton, 354; the Fylde, 25; Garstang, 46; Haslingden,
11; Leigh, 23; Manchester, 398 ; Preston, 309 ; Saddle-
worth, 143 ; Salford, 167 ; Stockport, 82 ; Wigan, 59 ; total,
2,396. But there is an increase at Bolton of 3; Glossop,
23 ; Lancashire, 3 ; Macclesfield, 8 ; Oldham, 405 ; Prest-
wich, 10; Rochdale, 196; Todmorden, 30; and Warring-
ton, 49; making a total increase of 727,—50 that there is a
net decrease of 1,669, and since the 6th of December last a
toantalindereecarseeasoefo:6s
129,203,05 has taken place. There were on
the sth inst., 142,780 persons receiving parochial relief in
the 27 unions adverted to ; in the corresponding week of
1861, 46,725 persons were so relieved; there is, therefore,
persons in the receipt of parochial re-
lief, or 205.6 per cent. In the corresponding week of 1862,
144,007 persons received parochial relief. It will be a source
of satisfaction to your committee to observe that the pauper-
ism of this week is less by 1,227 in number than that of the
corresponding week of 1862. Tho total weekly cost of out-
door relief on the sth inst. was £8,749 4s ; in the correspond-
ing week of 1861 it was £2,236 9s ; there is, therefore, an in-
crease of £6,512 14s 2d or 2951 per cent. In the correspond-
ing week of 1862 it was £8,193 Os 10d. The average per
centage of pauperism on the population of these unions on
the sth inst. was 7'2 ; in the corresponding week of 1562
it
was 2.4 ; and the corresponding week of 1861 it was 7.3.
The amount of money in the hands of the treasurers of the
above unions on the sth inst. was £98,576 95.
Mr. FARNALL remarked upon the fact that whilst at this
time last year the number s elieved by guardians was increas-
ing at the rate of 5,000 per week, it was now decreasing after
the rato of something like 1,500 weekly. He then, in con-
formity with notice given last week, introduced the question
whether it was expedient or desirable for distinct relief com-
mittees to undertake contracts for the execution of public
works by the men on their relief lists. For his own part
he was prepared to answer the question distinctly in the
ne,,ative. Committees, by entering into such contracts, and
employing the operatives on them simply as a labour test,
would cause unfair competition with corporations and other
contracting bodies, who, under the Public Works Act,
would be able to occupy the men upon work for a fair rate
of wages, and thereby tend to the demoralisation of the ope-
ratives by maintaining them as paupers instead of allowing
them to become independent labourers, in accordance with
the intention of Parliament in
passing the act referred to,
Mr. R. H. HuTcurssoN proposed :—" That, with a view
to extend the operations of the Public Works Act as much
and as quickly as possible, it be recommended that the
various relief committees, during the winter months, assist
in procuring contracts SO as to provide for the able-bodied
unemployed operatives, taking care to ensure them being
placed on this employment very extensively on measured
work, and conducting the operations so that those em-
ployed may be trained to continuo contracts for themselvesb
under the respective boards or public bodies carryina.
out
the act after the termination of this winter." Oue of the
main reasons which induced him to make this proposal was
that, in the event of local committees taking any other
course than that he had indicated, there would be no pos-
sibility of discriminating as to the kind of labour which
should bo employed on these works,—that was to
say, when there was not sufficient work for all, the em.
into
fam thee handswher e
ao
ef
rhoth
Committeee single men
panlodymtheonste wwotuth small ld
of which he was a member felt that the married
men witb large families ought to have the preference till all
could bo employed. Ile was of opinion that corporations
alone would not be enabled to undertake many desirable
contracts which, under the arrangement he proposed, could
be carried out. According to the opinion of counsel which
had been obtained corporations could not recover losses
which might arise under them from the rates. At least that
would be the case at Blackburn. The municipal rate, as it
was called, was probably the only one upon which such a
charge could be made, and that would not suffice. In course
of some months the committee would be able to resign the
work of entering into contracts entirely into the hands of
corporations end other properly-constituted bodies. What
he desired was, that during the winter season the commit-
tees should have power to afford temporary relief to those
engaged on these public works, but who, from inclement
weather, would occasionally be unable to earn a sufficient
maintenance. no trusted this committee would, by their
adoption of his motion, allow local committees the oppor-
tunity of using the labour at their command upon public
works as a fit and Proper test of eligibility for the relief to
afforded.

be concluded that the Public Works Act
Mr. GOODAIIt seconded the motion, urging various
cient to provide employment for the
scs:ueted operatives, without the aid of the
wwhouolled groundstopi
rotonhvewe
dhiiin
district committee. He thought there was no choice except
as between the carrying out of lir. Hutchinson's sugges-
tions and allowing the ;operatives to walk idly about the
streets.

into the
who
t °weans
The CHAIRMAN said this would probably be the fitting
this
asbul ebj et
cot af rt. ot
emn dS. r ahme ems Kinauyt
question at issue and the main
time
wS he
went
tt tt
vloeewrr eyoardct
closely
minute
principles which it involved. His lordship then read the
communication adverted to, which was as follows:

it minute as to contracts by relief committees, and em-
ployment of indigent cotton workmen in such contracts.
46 The relief of indigence in the cotton districts has
hitherto proceeded mainly from two sources, viz., the legal
charge on property, and the voluntary contributions of
charity to Publish funds. These two sources of relief are
subject to a law of economy. When the poor rates and the
relief funds have provided to the indigent the means of
sustaining health, they have discharged their function.
ss I. The laws for the relief of the poor never were in-
tended to provide employment with wages. Such an obli-
gation would convert the poor-laws into an organised system
of labour conducted by the state, which would destroy the
relations between capital and labour—employers and em-
ployed—and establish a form of socialism destructive to
private capital and demoralising labour. Every step, there-
fore, from that legitimate use of the poor-rates, or of public
charitable funds, which restricts them to the maintenance
of health, to another which proceeds to assume obligations
to provide wages from such sources is full of danger.
"2. Wages
are given to the able-bodied without respect
to the wants of their families. A single able-bodied man
receives as much, at piece work, as a man with a wife and
four children. To find employment with wages, therefore,
if general, necessarily creates a heavier charge than the
simple maintenance of health.
" 3. A relief committee has no corporate power to enter
into any contract to secure employment for those whom it
relieves. Such a contract could only be legally entered into
by individual members of the relief committee in their
private capacity. If such private persons enter into such a
contract, the
from the manatee.
" 4. Supposing
y can receive no legal security for its fulfilment
these technical difficulties to be over-
come, and that the majority and most influential mem-
bers of such a committee sign such a contract—if they de-
termine to provide from their relief funds ordinary wages,
either for piece work or day work, they have no warrant to
expect any aid from the Central Executive Committee to
carry out a scheme inconsistent with the economy of funds
intended simply to support health.
" 5. It is possible to adjust a scheme of labour to a scale
of relief adapted simply to sustain health, by paying for
work done by the hour at the usual rate, and not requiring
more hours' work than will enable the workman to make his
labour and that of his family equal at that rate per hour
to the scale of relief intended to sustain health. Any othcr