View report page

50
charge. Some have asserted that Finsbury is the only borough
where they can rent a room "without giving a reference."
2. The deaths of old people in almshouses and annuitants, who
come into the Borough late in life.
3. The deaths of the homeless and of those who have never
lived in the Borough, but have given a Finsbury address in order
to achieve a fictitious and plausible Finsbury settlement.
4. The deaths of nurse children and of illegitimate children
whose mothers live in other districts. These children are placed
in Finsbury with unregistered foster mothers who adopt them for
a very small sum, which is thoroughly insufficient to pay for
feeding and clothing the babies properly.
It must be remembered that there are in Finsbury many philanthropic
and charitable associations, missions and settlements which
not only relieve the needy but also bring them into the district.
To every action there is a reaction equal and opposite. In the
foregoing paragraphs are some of the reactions, incidental to the
establishment of humane and charitable undertakings, reactions
which are common knowledge and familiar enough to public health
officers, but which appear to be overlooked by those genuinely
kind and generous people whose object is to relieve want and to
succour distress.
In the interests of the poor themselves and to prevent the
crowding and consequent ill-health which now occurs in boroughs,
the transference of the sites of benevolent ventures to rural or to
sub-rural districts would appear to be desirable.
An Act is wanted on the statute book to systematize and codify
voluntary philanthropic endeavour—an Act for benevolence and
philanthropy planning, to promote the ruralisation of charitable
effort.
In addition to the foregoing factors which influence the Finsbury
death rates, there are two others which deserve passing notice.