§ 26. Mr. SPOORasked the Minister of Health whether, in the closing of a casual ward, he reminds the guardians that they must take into the workhouse any destitute wayfarer who applies for relief and is unable to proceed to the next casual ward; whether, in this connection, the next casual ward is defined as the next on the main road along which the destitute wayfarer is proceeding or whether the guardians can comply with this instruction by telling the man or woman to go back to the open ward from which he or she started in the morning, or to go to some open ward off his route or her route and off the main road, provided that the open ward is within his or her capacity for walking?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe reply to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. In this connection the expression "the next casual ward" would ordinarily mean the nearest casual ward, but I should not regard it as a reasonable compliance with my requirements that a casual proceeding to a definite objective should be directed out of a convenient route, still less that he should be directed to return to the ward from which he had started in the morning.