§ MR. WILLIAM DAVIES (Pembrokeshire)asked the President of the Local Government Board, What number of Unions in England and Wales are allowed by law to adopt the system of boarding out of the workhouse their pauper children; and, whether, seeing that the inspectors' reports (as appears in the Local Government Blue Books) are almost uniformly favourable to this course, and that the means of education would thereby be brought within reach of such children wherever located, he will issue instructions to boards of guardians urging on them the advisability of adopting the system in the case of all orphan and deserted children under their charge?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Mr. STANSFELD) (Halifax)There are 141 Unions in which the Guardians are empowered to board out orphan and deserted children under duly appointed boarding-out committees beyond the limits of the Unions to which the children are chargeable. And the Guardians of all Unions, except those in the Metropolis, are authorized to board out such children within their Unions. We have no reason to 1178 doubt that Boards of Guardians generally are aware of the arguments in favour of the boarding-out system; and, as the Local Government Board have recently appointed a lady who has taken an active interest in the adoption of the system to visit the children boarded out, and her Report will be made public, the Guardians will have further means of forming their own judgment on the subject. The Local Government Board do not propose to issue instructions as suggested. I may add that I am personally strongly in favour of this system.