The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-10 00:00:00

THE DISTRESS iN LANCASHIRE.

WIGAN.—At the meeting of the Distress Com-
mittee this week the state of the funds of the town
was found to be even worse than had been antici-
pated. The total amount of subscriptions unex-
pended was £9OO, but a cheque having just been
drawn for £2OO for the payment of tradesmen, only
£7OO was left. Of this £7OO, £4OO had not yet
been paid by the subscribers, so that £3OO was all
that was available at present. The expenditure
last week was £2lO, with which sum 1,694 cases
had been relieved. Each case represents, we be-
lieve, about three persons, the names of heads of
families alone being entered in the relief books.
This gives a total of over 5,000 persons as receiving
relief from the committee. The guardians are also
relieving between 2,600 and 2,700 out-door poor,
and there are over 400 persons in the workhouse;
so that the total number of the poor in the district
may fairly be stated at considerably over 8,000. It
was decided by the committee to make energetic
efforts to collect the outstanding subscriptions, and
to solicit further aid, and also to see whether more
of the cases could not be relieved by the Board of
Guardians. It was stated that the Local Board of
Health had arranged to employ a number of the
able-bodied poor in the repair of the streets, and
this test, there was no doubt, would be of great ser-
vice. A collection is to be made for the benefit of
the distressed operatives in each place of worship
in the town on Faster Sunday.
PRESTON.—We regret to say that there is no
diminution in the pauperism of the Preston
Union. At the weekly meeting of the guar-
dians, held yesterday, the following returns
were submitted : Out-door relief last week,
£531 6s. 9d. ; corresponding week last year, £140;
being an increase of £391 6s. 9d. Workhouse
inmates last week, 948 ; corresponding week
last year, 567 ; increase, 381. Labourers in the
employ of the Union, 1,070 ; in the stoneyard
and Ribbleside, about 300. The chairman drew at-
tention to the state of pauperism during the present
presdure in comparison with what it was during the
great commercial crisis in 1858. During the win-
ter quarter of 1858 the average number of cases per
week was 2,329. During the past 13 weeks the
average number of cases was 2,292. In 1858 the
average number of persons receiving out-door re-
lief per week was 6,720. In the past quarter the
number per week in receipt of relief has been 7,370.
The average weekly amount of money paid in out-
door relief during the winter quarter of 1858 was
£495 lls. 5d.; this year, during the period before
named, the amount has been £417 is. 4d. This
quarter the number of cases has been 37 per week
less than in 1858 ; the number of persons 650 more
per week than in 1858 ; and the weekly amount of
relief £7B 10s. ld. less than in 1858. It will thus
be seen that, although there have been 650 more
paupers in the Union this quarter than during the
winter quarter of 1858, when there was so much
distress, their maintenance has not cost so much by
£7B 10s. ld. The difference is accounted for by the
fact that employment has been provided for the
paupers in a better manner than in 1858, and that
the administration of relief has been better regu-
lated and superintended. The highest amount ever
paid in relief in 1858 was in the second week of the
winter quarter, when the sum was £662 19s. 10d.,
and the number of persons relieved 8,202. The
present distress has not, however, it is feared,
reached a climax ; but the highest amount hitherto
paid in any one week of the present quarter has
been £475, and the number of persons relieved
therewith 8,496.-Iy. a n chester Examiner,