METROPOLITAN COMMON POOR FUND BILL, 1898. (Hansard, 4 August 1898)

LORD HARRIS

This Bill was carried through the House of Commons by Mr. T. W. Russell on behalf of the Local Government Board. Its object is to make certain Amendments in section 69 of the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1867, which deals with the expenses repayable to boards of guardians and other poor law authorities in the Metropolis, out of the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund. This fund is raised by contributions from boards of guardians throughout the whole Metropolis according to the rateable value of their unions and parishes. The expenses incurred in the maintenance of London pauper children in district, separate certificated and licensed schools are repayable out of the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund, but where the children in any such institution are sent to a public elementary school for instruction, and receive no instruction in the building, it is held that the institution ceases to be a school within the meaning of the section, and no repay- 62 ment from the fund in respect of the maintenance of the children can be made. It is desirable that, where practicable, pauper children should attend public elementary schools, where they will mix with other children, and to encourage this it is proposed by sub-clause (1) of clause 1 of the Bill to allow repayment out of the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund in respect of children so sent out to school. At present the Local Government Board have no means of enforcing a limit to the number of children who may be maintained in metropolitan district or separate schools, for the purpose of preventing overcrowding, although the Board can enforce such a limit in the case of workhouses. Clause 1 (2) of the Bill will enable the Board to certify the maximum number of children who may be maintained in these schools, and repayment from the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund cannot then be made in respect of any children in excess of the number certified by the Board. Where children are sent from more than one union to a school, and the limit fixed by the Board is exceeded, the question will arise to which union the cost of the maintenance of the children in excess is to be charged. The clause will enable the Board to determine the manner in which this charge is to be borne. The Board are desirous that the Bill should pass into law during the present Session.