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execution of which had been expedited so that work
might be afforded at a period when employment was
scarce; also enquiring what action had been taken
in founding or promoting labour registries in the
District, and any other measures in connection with
work for the unemployed; and asking for information
with regard to similar efforts in previous years,
and as to the extent to which there had been want of
employment in the District during the winter months.
In reply the Local Government Board were informed
that no large exceptional works had been undertaken
by the Board, that the sum of £851 3s. 5d. had been
expended in the removal of snow and in sanding roads
during frost, and that for this purpose men out of
work residing in the district were chiefly employed;
and that in the winter of 1890-91 a Committee of the
Board sat daily in the parish of Wandsworth for the
purpose of setting the unemployed to work in
scavenging, snow removal, and other works, the
number of men thus employed during a period of
about three weeks being 204. The Board recorded the
fact that on one occasion when the Committee was
thus sitting about 120 men applied for work and upon
being told that only GO could then be employed they
all declined to accept any kind of employment. The
Local Government Board were also informed that the
experience of the Board led them to the conclusion
that able-bodied excavators and general labourers who
are set to work by local authorities in times of distress
scon get other work, but that there are many old men
and weakly young men, and others not used to hard
manual labour, who seek employment at such times,
and that it was difficult for local authorities to provide
for such men, as they were only fitted for light work.
labour Bureau. In January last a free labour bureau
was opened by the Board at the Town Hall, Wands