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SAINT GEORGE THE MARTYR, SOUTHWARK.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
For the last Quarter, 1856.
V
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of thf. Vestry,
It is now my duty to present you with my Report for a Fourth Quarter, the last of 1856.
I cannot but congratulate you that the great and just question of an equalized poor-rate is
rapidly gaining attention; it lies at the very foundation of sanitary and social improvement
in poor parishes; it is as just that a rich parish should help a poor one, as that the richer
should help their poorer neighbours, or that Guardians should help individual poor. Yestries
are appointed especially for social and sanitary purposes; I therefore respectfully ask your
closest attention to this subject. Our courts and alleys are full of a pauper population, full of
poverty and bad arrangements, and consequently full of disease; they increase upon us, and
will, if we strive not against it, overwhelm us. Our population rapidly increases, but it is a
population that requires help, or what is worse, coercion. Those earnest men who are endeavouring
to instruct the poor and the vicious, in the holes and corners of this parish, will not
be able to stem the torrent, unless this Vestry gives its heart to the work of cleansing,
physically and morally, these bye places. Darkness, filth and disease, demoralize as well as
destroy. Here, the duties we have to perform, if well performed, cannot but ultimately raise
our population to a higher standard. It is a great duty, as well as a great privilege, to
attempt it; it should not be lightly passed by, much less should it be sneered down. We in common
with some other poor parishes are not bearing our own burdens only. "Our poor work at
the water side, in the City, and at the docks; their productive labour helps to enrich and to pay
the rates of other parishes, but in difficulty and sickness they live and lean upon us." Many
parishes have gradually removed their poor, and have so removed disease and expense from
among them. An equalized poor-rate will help to adjust this, and will give us means which
we have not at present. Since 1838, the cost of keeping the poor, has increased in all England
less than half; in the same time this parish has more than doubled its expenses. I have
annexed a Table; in it you will see a London parish that pays to the support of the poor, for
each person in it, 10s. 3d., to pay as we do it should be 30s.: another 8s. 3d., it should be
13s. 9d.: another 5s. 9d., should be 13s. 4d. all London pays 6s. 4d. per individual, but to pay
equally with St. George's, it should be not 6s. 4d. but 13s. 9d. You cannot improve your
parish as you ought unless this be altered; you have in it a great plea for an equalization of
the Poor-Rate throughout the Metropolis.
PARISH OF