View report page

29
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1896.
One night's residence within a Union gives a person the right to throw himself
upon the rates as a pauper.
Three years' unbroken residence constitutes an acquired settlement, which takes
precedence of a birth settlement.
Twelve months' undisturbed residence constitutes an "irremovability." That is
to say, the pauper can throw himself upon the rates, but he forfeits that right by a single
night's residence away from the parish, when he reverts to his original union of settlement.
If thrown upon the rates during temporary sickness, a pauper cannot be removed,
no matter what his settlement.
The money spent in trying to establish a pauper's settlement is often considerable.
The attempt may involve much correspondence, special journeys, and legal proceedings,
which may be carried from one court to another, even to the Lords. So great is the cost
and delay in disputed cases that the responsibility is not infrequently accepted by the
Guardians without further ado.
Let us suppose a vagrant to have wandered up to London. He hears that for a
penny he can sleep for the night in the Blackfriars Shelter, secure from the police.
He makes for the place, and, perhaps, after sleeping there once he cannot find the penny
for another night, and thereupon throws himself upon the St. Saviour's Union as a
pauper. Unless the Guardians can find out his original union of settlement, they are
thenceforth saddled with his maintenance. As an ablebodied man, he is kept in the
House ; if ill, he has to be tended in an infirmary; if insane, he is put in an asylum ;
if he die, he must be buried ; all at the expense of the ratepayers. So far as St. Saviour's
Union is concerned, any and all of these responsibilities have been again and again
thrust upon its Poor Law Authorities as the result of one or more nights spent by
vagrants in the Blackfriars Shelter.
Some idea of what the ratepayers of St. Saviour's pay for the Blackfriars Shelter,
may be gathered from an analysis of admissions from the latter to local Poor-law institutions
during the year 1895. Mr. Glover, a Relieving Officer in the Union, has
furnished us with an able, exhaustive, and painstaking report upon this matter.
During 1895, 691 paupers came direct from the Blackfriars Shelter to the Union
of St. Saviour's, of which number 82 were casual. The cost to the Guardians of such
paupers who had not a settlement in the Union, was £622 17s. 7d. These figures are
computed at the rate of ninepence per head per day in the Workhouse; one shilling
per day in a Poor Law infirmary ; and ten shillings per week in an asylum. The sum
mentioned does not include the heavy expense of inquiries into settlements, of transferring
paupers to there original unions, and of other miscellaneous items.
In addition to this charge for aliens, the cost of paupers from the Shelter who had
either a birth or an acquired settlement in the parish was £214 19s. 1d. Some of these
latter settlements, it should be noted were actually acquired by a continuous residence
of over three years passed night after night in the Shelter.
Adding these two sums together, we find that the direct cost to the Union for
paupers who came from the Shelter during 1895 was £837 16s. 8d. This sum does not
include the cost of 82 casuals, who were all detained for two nights and one day.
Some of the alien paupers would doubtless have drifted to St. Saviour's under any
circumstances. On the other hand it seems fair to assume that the greater number of
them were attracted thither by the existence of the Salvation Army Shelter. It must
be borne in mind that the sum of £837 16s. 8d. represents a portion only of the actual
outlay, for besides the heavy indirect expenses already mentioned, a number of these
persons are still in the Workhouse. Those who are permanently disabled by physical