§ MR. HARRISONI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he can see his way to fixing the age at which paupers entering the workhouses are compelled to chop firewood and pick oakum at 60 instead of 70 years of age; and if he could see his way towards obtaining a better diet for the aged paupers?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. RITCHIE,) Tower Hamlets, St. George'sThe only regulation of the Local Government Board bearing on the subject is that the paupers of the several classes shall be kept employed according to their capacity and ability. The question as to the employment of a pauper depends solely upon these considerations. There is no rule that inmates of workhouses shall be compelled to chop firewood and pick oakum unless they are 70 years of age. As regards the question of dietary, it is the invariable practice to provide for the aged paupers a better diet than that for the other classes.
§ MR. RANKIN (Herefordshire, Leominster)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether there is any law or Order of the Local Government Board which forbids the Guardians of the Poor classifying the indoor paupers, so that the respectable and dissolute paupers may be dealt 278 with in a different manner; and, if so, whether he will consider the propriety of repealing such law or such Order?
§ *MR. RITCHIEThe Regulations of the Local Government Board provide for the classification of the inmates of a workhouse as follows:—(1) Those who are infirm through age or any other cause; (2) Those who are able-bodied; (3) Children above the age of seven and under fifteen; and (4) Children under seven years of age. The Regulations, however, expressly provide that the Guardians shall, so far as circumstances permit, further sub-divide any of these classes with reference to the moral character or behaviour or the previous habits of the inmates, or to such other ground as may seem expedient.