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much loss of time in the removal would take place, causing in
all cases injury to the patients, and perhaps preventing removal
at all. In many cases it might lead to loss of life by the
removal being delayed too long.
It would also be found very objectionable in practice, as
the friends of the patients would have to go a considerable
distance to reach the central place where the representative of
the Board would attend to issue the orders. At present, on
application has to be made to the Relieving Officer of the SubDistrict
in which the sick person lives, and as there are nine
Officers, viz., one for each Sub-District, theie is not at present
any undue loss of time in the removal. It has been stated by a
Manager of the Asylums Board that nine-tenths of the patients
removed to their hospitals are non-paupers, so that if this
opinion were entertained by the Relieving Officers, about 900
persons would have been referred to this Board during the year,
September 30th, 1883, to October 1st, 1884, and as many as 54
in one day, which could scarcely be done from one centre
without great inconvenience to those requiring it. The cost of
the removal and treatment of nearly all these could not have
been paid by the patients or their friends, so that there would
have been scarcely any financial benefit to the District, indeed
the contrary, to counterbalance the objections to the new plan,
especially as the Board of Guardians can recover the cost from
non-pauper patients at the present time when removed by their
Officers. There is also the certainty that if most persons were
called upon to pay for the removal and treatment of themselves
or relations to hospitals, a very much larger proportion of the
cases would be treated at home, and not reported here, or to the
Relieving Officers, so that the risk of infection would be
considerably increased.
I also consider it would be most unfair to this District that
not only should there be an hospital for such diseases in our
midst, which I believe to have been a centre for spreading
disease, but also that this Board should be called upon to pay
the Asylums Board for taking charge of persons who may have
been infected through the Hospital. Besides this, the proposed