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69
A number of application forms are issued from the Clinics to children requiring in the opinion
of the Assistant Medical Officers a better or more regular meal than the parents are providing for
them; and a fair proportion of these forms are made use of by the parents.
It has been customary to re-investigate the Economic Circumstances of the family every
four weeks, and to remove from the free list, after at least five days' notice, those whose means
are shewn to be above the Education Committee's Scale. Where children are specially recommended
for meals on account of physical unfitness, the Children's Care Committee are asked to make
a decision upon hearing the medical report. The last column in the following Table, No. 67, shews
the present scale of the Education Committee for free meals, while the whole table shews
the variations of the scale adopted to meet the changes in the estimated cost of living.

It must not be supposed, however, that the scale of July, 1919, is adequate to meet the ever
rising cost of food, and more especially clothing. Owing to the difficulty in obtaining reliable information
from sufficient examples, the sum allocated to clothing (namely 1s. 9d. per head), in determining
the scale, must be deemed insufficient. The unsettled prices of fuel and other necessaries render it a
matter of extreme difficulty to determine a scale that shall meet the need of necessitous families.
For the encouragement of decency and healthy conditions in the home it is better to adopt a generous
scale for feeding and allow a larger proportion of the parents' income to be spent in accommodation,
warm clothing and sound boots.
The ecomonic circumstances of the family of the regularly employed workman paid at Trade
Union rate of wages do not come within the committee's scale for free meals unless the children are
very numerous. Applications are received, however, from the mothers of such families who have to
provide for all on the proportion of the father's earnings which she receives. The children in such
cases suffer materially upon removal from the Feeding List, the mother having insufficient to provide
adequately for them out of her weekly allowance.
Occupations.—During the year 1919 many of the families fed were in extremely poor circumstances
owing to the civilian unemployment dole coming to an end after the expiry of a stated
period. Table No. 68 shews the percentage of employed and unemployed parents whose children
were on the free list during the four weeks ended December 20th, 1919 :—