LOCAL TAXATION
AND
POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION
IN GREAT CITIES.
House of Commons,
Mr. Rathbone, in rising to move "That in the opinion of this House a closer and more harmonious correspondence between the Central and Local Poor Law authorities, and in consequence a more uniform and efficient system of parochial administration, would be established, and the incidence of Local Taxation would be safely rectified, if, as in the case of Education, grants, conditional on efficiency, were made from National sources through the medium of the Poor Law Board," said:—I must explain. Sir, in justification of my bringing this Resolution before the House, that, though the subjects of local taxation and the administration of the Poor Law have at the instance of county members engaged the attention of the House on more than one occasion during the present Session, they have generally been considered in their relation to and effect upon the agricultural districts.
I propose, now, to call attention to the evils and injustice which the defects in the present Poor Law system entail upon the large towns, and especially upon the poorer classes of their population. These appear to me to be so serious that I cannot rest satisfied without bringing them under the notice of the House, relying upon the kind forbearance which it never fails to extend to the embarrassment of inexperienced members, and upon the indulgence of which, as I am painfully aware, I stand in great need.
I will endeavour. Sir, to state as clearly as I am able, and as briefly as the circumstances will admit, the reasons which have induced me to bring this subject before the House, and to explain a resolution which not only points out the existence of certain evils, but, as I venture to believe, indicates the remedies by the application of which they may be removed. I am aware that the proposal embodied in the Resolution I am about to submit to
