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1904] 208
THE STATE OF PAUPERISM.
Although the close of the year was signalised by considerable distress in
the borough, due to the want of work, the average number of poor persons
relieved per week by the Board of Guardians, when compared with the preceding
year, shows only a very small increase, namely, from 8,004 in 1903 to
8,086 in 1904. Compared with the weekly average of the previous eight years
the increase was considerable, for it rose from 7,046 to 8,086, an increase of
1,040 per week. How great this increase is can be seen when we calculate what
it means for the year. It is then found that the number of occasions on which
relief was given rose from an annual average of 366,392 during eight years to
416,200 in 1904, an increase of 49,807. It can be easily understood that these
figures contain relief to the same persons repeated over and over again—but
they nevertheless show that poverty must have been acute to give rise to such
an increase. It has been pointed out that the increase in the number relieved in
1903 was almost identical with that in the year under consideration. If, however,
we go back to 1896, we find that the average number relieved per week was
6,436, or 1,650 fewer than that of 1904, and representing a difference in the total
number of reliefs of 85,800. The increased figures are instructive, and must,
no doubt, have been caused to a large extent by the depression of trade.

Outdoor Paupers.—The weekly average of outdoor paupers relieved
numbered 4,464, of whom 3,069 were adults, and 1,395 children under 16