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N.A.L.G.O.
On 19th March, at a crowded and enthusiastic meeting, it was decided to
form a local branch of the National Association of Local Government Officers.
I have the honour of representing it on the executive council of the Association.
Mr. Wm. F. Payne (our Clerk) was elected President and Mr. F. W.
Claxton as Hon. Secretary. Its usefulness to its members will entirely depend
upon the courage and energy of its executive committee.
THE DISTRESS COMMITTEE.
The Distress Committee has been busy in finding useful work for the
unemployed and putting to good use the monies supplied by the Government.
The Unemployed Workmen Act was to be in operation for three years only,
but has been renewed yearly since 1908. Unemployment during 1914 was
affected by two factors : one unfavourable, the closing of Ridley Whitley's
works ; one favourable, the extra hands, male and female, taken on by factories
in Enfield and Edmonton producing rifles, cartridges, shells and gunpowder for
Great Britain and her Allies against Germany and Austria.
The unemployed men were engaged up to May in widening Silver Street
and culverting a part of Pymmes Brook at the south-west end of the Park.
Abour 285 were employed 44 hours a week at sixpence an hour; each man had
three weeks' work.
In September the register was re-opened and 993 names entered (including
112 females). Of these, 107 men had work in cleaning out the lake in Pymmes
Park and some of the women were taken on by the branch of the Queen Mary's
Needlework Guild at our Baths.
The Chairmen of this Committee have been the Rev. E. A. B. Sanders,
Mr. F. W. Mason, and Councillor F. Vincent, who is the present occupant of
this responsible position. Mr. A. C. Church is the Clerk of the Committee.
POOR LIIW INSTITUTIONS.
The workhouses of two large Unions are situated in Fore Street Ward.
The one belonging to the Strand Union, London, to which is attached the
Strand Union Schools, received its inmates from the Strand and other Central
London Districts; its population, therefore, did not enter into our statistics.
The Institution belonging to the Edmonton Board of Guardians receives a
certain proportion of its inmates from this district, and such proportion is treated
as part of our population for statistical purposes. The large bulk of the
inmates, however, is derived from Tottenham, Southgate, Wood Green, Hornsey,
Enfield, Cheshunt (Herts) and Waltham Abbey (Essex), which places make up