§ MR. SUMMERBELL (Sunderland)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to the case of a farmer residing at Diddlebury, Shropshire, who is a member of the Ludlow Board of Guardians, and who was fined £10, including costs, at the Ludlow County Police Court on the 30th ultimo 1580 for assaulting an orphan and workhouse boy, aged fourteen years, in his custody and care, in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering and injury to health, viz., by entering the boy's bedroom at 5.45 a.m., pulling the clothes off him, and boating him with a knotted stick across the legs, back and arms; and whether, if he has not already done so, he will ascertain the precise terms of the arrange-meet (inter alia, the number of hours per day the boy had to work and the pay he received) entered into between the Ludlow Board of Guardians and the farmer in question as to the placing out of the boy in the defendant's custody and care.
§ MR. JOHN BURNSI have made inquiry on this subject and I understand that substantially the facts are as stated in the Question. I am informed that when a boy is placed out in service by the guardians of the Ludlow Union it is customary for arrangements to be made for the payment to him by the person with whom he is placed of a small sum per week for his services, but that in the case mentioned this was not done. Nor was any arrangement made with regard to the boy's hours of work. I will give attention to the method adopted in this Union for placing boys in service.