§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board how many boards of guardians have adopted the Order which was issued in December last authorising the relief out of the workhouse of the wife and family of any able-bodied male person who is relieved in the workhouse; have any Metropolitan boards adopted the Order; and, if so, will he say which; how many families in all have been relieved under the Order, and how many in the Metropolis alone; has he received any report from his inspectors as to the operation of the Order, and will he state the effect of those reports; and does he intend to continue the Order, which was made operative for six months only.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSNo Order on this subject was issued in December last, nor has there been any general Order with regard to it. But last November separate Orders were issued to Kensington and Islington, authorising the arrangement referred to for six months, and in January similar Orders were issued to Wandsworth and Hampstead. The two former Orders have just expired, and I have not received any application for their renewal. The other Orders will not expire until July next. So far as I am aware, no families have been relieved under these Orders. The Poplar Guardians, however, did avail themselves of the powers conferred on them by a similar Order which was issued early in 1905, but I cannot state precisely to what extent.