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11
About 1,000 Bethnal Green children received meals
at school owing to their necessitous condition, but this
assistance was granted only while the schools were
open.
In the Annual Report for 1928 it was stated that
Welfare Centre inquiries tended to show that the
majority of families were below the "living wage"
level of £4 per week for a family of 5. I am afraid
that the general level of wages is even lower now than
it was then.
PUBLIC HEALTH EXPENDITURE.
The economy of the expenditure on the public
health services will be seen from a comparison of its
relatively small cost with the striking results in
healthier and longer lives which are recorded elsewhere
in this and previous reports. During the financial year
1929-30, the cost of these services was £16,889, or
3s. 1d. per head of the population, equivalent to a rate
of 8½d. in the £. In actual cash Bethnal Green spends
on this vital service per head per annum only what an
average family will spend on "the pictures" in a month
or two.
THE HEALTH SERVICES IN THE BOROUGH.
Although the Borough Council is the local health
authority many important health services are still
outside its jurisdiction and indeed health functions are
exercised by an extraordinary diversity of agencies.
The number of these agencies has been somewhat reduced
by recent legislation. Certain health services which
had hitherto been carried out by the Metropolitan
Asylums Board and the Boards of Guardians were
transferred to the London County Council and the
Borough Councils as from the 1st April, 1930. Health
functions are also exercised by the London Insurance
Committee and by general medical practitioners, midwives,