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CHESTER INFIRMARY.i

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NEWS OF THE WORLD, ! 1-

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I VANITY FAIR. !

ROSSETT.

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! EDUCATION AND LUNACY. I

IBRASS BAND CONTEST. 11 SUGGESTION…

—-———.———— THE COST OF PAUPERISM.I

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—-——— ———— THE COST OF PAUPERISM. I TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—In the last number of the Observer | you quote the steady increase in the expense J of aaQ.inistcr i ng the pwr  Ycu suggest o? administering tho poor b w. Ycu GuggCtt this may be due to the incompetence of the guardians. A few we2ks ago the 6gu.:cs g'ven by vour journ&l for Chester shewed that 500 by yotir jotirnal feft'g over ?25,000, or, at a rough calculation, 12s, per w.-k for cvMy i,?di- vidual. Considering that m!U.ons of working- men have to rear P. whol-e family on much a.t retail purchasing price, arc we to suppose that the enormous expense of liiamta nag a pauper is du to the- mismanagement of the i,L a great deal could be j saved to the ratepayers by the guardians abol- ishing the middleman, t:6 iar as possible. Ail tno baking, for instance, could be done on trie | piomises, both for the workhouse and the chii- tlren's home; also for the asylum, if that in- sti: uticn does not c ury en its own bakery. This might oven be extended to tailoring, fcoDt.rnak- ing, etc. The shopkeeping members of the j Board would, of cours.?, object to this but the newsagents have to bo diis "egarded in e e.i• c- ticn with public lib;aries, so there would be nothing revolutionary in the scheme. But I am not seriously concerned in attacv- ing the Guardians of Chester or the boards cf guardians in general. I am rather concerned in trying to shew your readers the sc-nso'-esi waste of money and the terrible wasting away cf useful (or what should be useful) lives in these hideous institut ions, known as work- houses. During the la.s: 25 yea:s the naJon has sinned away £ 242,000.000 in further degrading and demoralising the wretched victims of greed and competition. Recently an enquny shewed that over 2.000 inmates of workhouses had con- tributed to friendly scobctiM for over ten years. ) while ever twelve hundred had ccntnbuted 20 years, and then lost employment or failed in health, ,and were unable to keep up their con- tributions. The repoit for 1905 of the Joiners' Society shews that over £ 82.000 hs,, been pe,id in relief of unemployed members. The en- gineers', bricklayers' and other societies shew similar conditions, so that it is evident that | pauperism is a o-ial or r.a-ti-cnal resuit and net I a p'inponal one. Vagrancy originated by the destruction of the I monasteries by Henry VIII., and the confisca- tion by himself and the Anglican chureh of their wealth and lairds, thus turning adrift tens of thousands of penniless labcuiers who hitherto had been employed on the land by the menks. Queen Elizabeth attempted to rectify this by passing a Peor Law Act. thus compelling the community to maintain the landless unem- ployed. instead of giving back to them the power to maintain themselves. Seeing, then, that the pauper system, as ad- ministered in England, is wasteful, degrading, and senseless, I con-tend that the only intelli- gent 6slut-ion is to retrace our steps and return the people to the land again, whence they can obtain health and wealth to satisfy their wants by honesty and independence. Grants from the Imperial Exchequer should augment the pauper rates, so that every la-go town could acquire a few thousand acres of | land, and commence operatiens by employing the unemployed for the building- trade in erect- ing housing aciomnacdation. The unemployed of the labouring class oouid then be utilised in producing such food as is now obtained from foreign sources, such as wheat. This would necessitate a.ll sorts of additions to the initial j industry-granary, flour mill, bakehouse, school, tramway to the town, etc., providing work for skilled and unskilled labour, ad inifnitum.— j Yours respectfully, J. W ATSON. Plough-lane, C-hristleton.

TIDE TABLE. I

MARKETS AND FAIRS. j fARKETD…

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. rITOU.-…

LIGHTING-UP TABLE.I

ELECTRICAL EXHIBITION. I

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