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but to avoid the delay involved in the process of getting a surcharge
remitted, in the event of the Auditor making one, the
Clerk to the Managers, under their authority, applied to the
Local Government Board to sanction the expenditure incurred in
the maintenance of such patients, under the power conferred upon
the Board by section 3 of the Local Authorities (Expenses) Act,
1887, which enacts that " Expenses paid by any local authority
whose accounts are subject to audit by a district auditor, shall not
be disallowed by that auditor if they have been sanctioned by the
Local Government Board." The Board sanctioned the expenditure,
with an intimation that it was the intention of the President
to introduce a Bill for the purpose of removing any doubt as to
the legality of expenditure of the character indicated, had circumstances
admitted of legislation in the then current Session. The
Managers recognizing the importance of the step taken by the
Local Government Board, informed the local authorities of the
correspondence, and thereafter no further difficulty was experienced
in regard to the admission of non-paupers. The
President gave effect to his intention by the insertion of a clause
in the Poor Law Act, 1889 (vide page 64), which provides, in a
practical if not altogether satisfactory manner, for the settlement
of the question, thus giving effect to the proposal made by myself
and approved by your Yestry, in 1877, that the expenditure
incurred in the treatment, in the Managers' Hospitals, of all
cases of infectious disease, should be a charge upon a Metropolitan
common fund, by whatever name called.
MEDICAL INSTRUCTION. AT THE HOSPITALS.
The Poor Law Act, 1889, among other valuable provisions,
authorises the Managers, if they think fit, " to allow the Asylums
provided by them for fever, small-pox, and diphtheria, to be used
for purposes of medical instruction, subject to any rules and
regulations which the Local Government Board may from time to
time make " (section 4). The Managers have recently decided to