The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-06 00:00:00

SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY.

The parish of St. Pancras has unfortuuaely
obtained an unenviable notoriety in the management
of its poor, and it is very likely that the Poor-law
Board is a little prejudiced in regard to its statistics.
It is certainly startling to find that out of 1,040
adult able-bodied paupers in receipt of out-door
relief in excess of the number of the same class last
year, no less than 271, or more than one-fourth belong
to unlucky St. Pancras. The Poor-law Board
however, wishes to cut the Gordian knot after a short
and summary fashion, which would get rid of the
present difficulty, regardless of future consequences.
They have addressed a communication to the Guar-
dians, directing them to insist on the rigid applica-
tion of the workhouse test. In other words, where
a working family are temporarily distressed owing to
the illness of the breadwinner, to loss of employ-
ment, or other causes, but might with a little help
from the parish manage to keep afloat, they are to
be forced to break up their homes and pauperize their
children for life. The three or four shillings and three
or four loaves a week, which are all that are given by
parish authorities to widows with four or five young
children would, certainly not, even with rigid work-
. house management, suffice to feed, clothe, educate,
and apprentice the family, to say nothing of the
incalculable moral loss of pauperising either men or
women._ it is possible for_ our working poor when in
full employment to do much more in the way of
providing for a rainy day than they do, but there will
always be cases of inevitable distress from illness,
accident, the fluctuations of trade, and other
casualties. In any case, if the public have to assist,
they had better do it in a manner satisfactory to both
sides, and as Mr. Joseph Salter very justly pointed
out to the guardians, the course proposed by to the
Poor Law Board is no less suicidal than. cruel. A
committee was appointed to take action on the
subject.

WASTE OF WATER.

In the present dry season it is important to do all

that is possible to avoid the waste of water, and yet
through ignorance or indifference many valuable
opportunities are lost, and great suffering and low
ensue. The habit of storage in times of excess to
provide fora state of scarcity, cannot be too highly
commended, and the writer of a letter to the Times,
points Out the advantage that may accrue
from such a course. The poorer classes
throughout the country are suffering greatly
from the want of water, and many poor men are pay-
ing a penny a day for a supply. To these people a
storm of half-an-inch rainfall would be worth five
shillings if it were conserved for use. The owners of
cottages should provide underground tanks to receive

the water collected from the roofs. Were these pre-
cautions adopted, the family of a cottager would be

kept well supplied with water through the frequent
storms which are now recurring. It is high time
that some remedial measures were adopted, for the
inhabitants of many villages are now reduced to the
necessity of resorting to surface-ponds, in which the
sewage of farmyards is collected.