MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of 761 Ireland whether he is aware that within the South Dublin Union, in the week ending February, 1893, it is asserted that the death rate was in the ratio of 364 per 1,000 per annum, and whether this was partially attributable to the dietary; whether the allowance of tea was then only one ounce to a gallon of water; and whether the present scale of one ounce and a-half per gallon, being complained of as insufficient, will be increased in the interests of the health of the inmates, more especially the aged poor?
MR. J. MORLEYThe Registrar General has not the necessary information to enable him to answer the first paragraph of the question. All deaths in Public Institutions are distributed in his Returns according to the localities from which the deceased are admitted. Workhouse inmates comprise a number of sick people, and the death-rate would be a hospital death-rate. The Local Government Board state that no facts have come before them tending to show that the dietary has anything to say to the rate of mortality in the workhouse. The Board consider that the scales of dietary now in use in the workhouse are sufficient, and if the Guardians desire to propose any alteration in the scale the Board will, if they consider it desirable, sanction the change.