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Agreement would render the Board liable not only for the
£4 4s. 0d. proposed as payment for the removal and treatment,
but also for new clothes if deemed necessary, and for the
funeral expenses if the patient died. I do not think that these
charges should be defrayed by this Board but out of the
General Rates of the Metropolis, as the sick are removed to
the hospitals chiefly for the public good. It also seems evident
that persons who would have to be buried or clothed at the
expense of the rates can scarcely be considered to be nonpaupers.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours obediently,
JOHN W. TRIPE, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health for the Hackney District.
The Sanitary Committee, after fully considering the Circular,
the proposed Agreement, and my Report, arrived at the conclusion
that in their opinion it is advisable not to adopt the proposal on
the grounds set out in my report, and also because the circular
did not define what the Asylums Board Managers mean by the
word "non-pauper." They also were of opinion that the costs
incurred by the removal of those who are sick with an infectious
disease should be defrayed out of the general and not the local
rates, except as regards such persons as were able to pay the
£4 4s. Od. at the time of admission. Also that the Managers
should have power, by Act of Parliament, to recover the amount
from all persons who could afford to pay, instead of this duty
being, as at present, cast on the Boards of Guardians.
I now propose discussing the ordinary Tables in connection
with the mortality of the District. Table I. indicates the
population of, and the births, marriages and deaths in the
District during 11 years. The increase of population has not
been calculated at so large an annual rate since 1882 as before,
in consequence of the increased proportion of houses unoccupied
in the District, as shown by the Rate Books, so that I have
calculated the population on July 1, 1885, at 210,600 only,