§ *MR. GEOFFREY DRAGE (Derby)I rise to call attention to the state of the Poor Law, and to Move—
That the present state of administration requires the urgent attention of Her Majesty's Government.We have sufficient materials at present upon which the House can form an opinion, and upon which we can ask the Government to bring in measures of reform. We had recently a Royal Commission on the Aged Poor, a Select Committee with reference to the unemployed, and we have also had a Departmental Committee with regard to Poor Law children. Year by year the Local Government Board issues its reports, year by year Poor Law conferences are held, and the volumes containing their proceedings are issued, and year by year there is an increase in the amount of scientific literature on the subject. But it is especially with regard to the Poor Law children that I wish, briefly to call the attention of the House. The House is aware that there are a large number of children constantly being taken in and out of workhouses, always with the result, and generally with the intention, of depriving them of such education as had been provided for them by the State. With regard to the number of these children there are 238,000 dependent on the rates in Great Britain, 18,000 in London, and 14,000 in Metropolitan Poor Law schools. In these schools there were 63 per cent. of admissions and 64 per cent. of discharges in one year, and the case is recorded of one family being taken in and out of one workhouse alone 62 times within 13 months. Miss Davenport Hill, who, as the House knows, has devoted her life to work in regard to this matter, testified that the morals of the children are constantly being ruined. Not only are they deprived of their education, but they are brought into contact with disease and moral degradation. 1430 The effect upon the teachers is to dishearten them, and the effect upon the parents is to deaden all sense of responsibility with reference to the children they have brought into the world. The Master of the Whitechapel Union, a great authority upon this subject——
§ Notice taken that 40 Members were not present; House counted, and 40 Members not present.