The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-08-31 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

WOLSTANTON AND BIIRSLEM GWARDIANS.  The usual fortnightly meeting of the Guardians of the Wolstanton and Burslem Union waa held on Tuesday afternoon in the Town Hall, Buralem, Mr. S. Edge (chairman) presiding. There were also present— Messrs. Hancock, Baker, Herrington, Wood, Clarke, Whittingham, Simpson, Adams, and Mr. R. J. Dansey, Local Government Inspector.—The workhouse muster (Mr. Hudson) reported that the total number of inmates in the house tor the week was 194. against 180 for the corresponding week of last year; 21 vagrants had been relieved during the week. Outdoor relief had been administered to 2,112 persons, at a cost of £lO4 lie. 14. —A letter was received in reference to the consecration of the cemetery at the workhouse, to the effect that the Hishop..would be willing to consecrate the ground on the 26th of September if the ground would be ready by that date—The adjourned discussion in reference to the tenders which were received at the previous meeting was then gone into. The members considered that the spot being somewhat isolated, there would be no need of going to much expense in the erection of a palisaded Wurrriwaliate gave notice that at the next meeting he would move that the resolution on the books be rescinded.—Mr. DANSET then produced a tabulated statement of pauperism, extracts of the local pauperism having appeared in the Potteries Examiner some time ago. Mi. Dansey said that the depressed Mate of trade appeared to have affected the Burslem and Wolstanton districts very much, as indeed it had done in the whole of the unions of Staffordshire with one exception. They would see that in January, 1873, the number of in.door paupers was 147, and of out-door 1,683, making a total of 1830. In lanuury of this year there were 203 indoor, and 2,163 out-door paupers, making the total 2,3613. There was thus an incremie in the in.door paupers of 56, in the outdoor of 480, and in the whole of 536. The expenditure showed a corresponding increase. In 1873 the expenditure on in door paupers for the first half .year was £7t34; oat-door, £2,358; total, £3,122. In 1878 the amounts were £7B9L £3,158, and £3,947, showing an increase of £25 in the indoor, ..£BOO in the out-door, and £825 in the total. In agricultural Unions the in. crease was not no noted, but in all districts affected by the depression of trade it was very great. In Stone Union the pauperi=m was very low.—ln reply to the Chairman, Mr. Dansey said that he had no direct recommendations to offer for the reduction of pauperism, but it was found that in those Unions where in-door relief preponderated the expenditure decreased. This was especially the case in the Hatchain Union, supposed to be the best managed in the country. Here the population was 45,500, and the number of in-door pan. pers 278, and outdoor 114. Instead of filling the work. house by a strict rule of indoor relief, the number of inmates had decreased from 297 to 278 since 1873. At Briagnorth and Runeorn and at London and Manchester some hard and fast rules were laid down, no that an applicant could know pretty plainly whether his &police. tion would be granted. In the absence of these he had known of ewes where applications had been made one week and refused, but granted the pest, when a friendly guardian was present, or when it hsppened to rain and certain Guardians were kept away. One of the rules were that no out-door relief should be given to women whose husbands were in gaol.—Mr. Lowndes said that the Guardians of that union did not do so except in exceptional cases.—Ultimately, Mr. Dansey promised to forward to the Guardians copies of the roles be had referred to—The assistant-clerk reported that the amount of fees to be paid to children who were not paupers in Wolstanton was £5 16s. 7d., nod for pauper children £2B 12s. 3d. for the quarter ended 28th Febru' sty—One ewe of typhoid fever was reported in the workhouse said to have been conveyed by a girl having absconded from the house and gone to a place where the fever existed, and on her return to the workhouse had an attack.—The meeting then adjourned.  The young woman Marie Boyer, who was condemned to hard labour for life at Marseilles last year, has just died in prbon. She had assisted the roan Vitalig, since executed, and who woe the paramour of both women, in murdering and cutting up her own mother, because the lattar would not consent to her marriage with Vitalis.