§ Mr. RAFFANasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the amount of Exchequer contributions to boards of guardians in respect of the salaries of Poor Law officers and the cost of drugs and medical appliances is limited to the expenditure actually incurred during the financial year 1887–8; and, seeing that this restriction operates unfairly in the case of unions where great improvements have been made in administration during the past twenty-four years, especially in the case of the sick and children, whether, in view of the recommendations of the Royal Commissions on Local Taxation and on the Poor Laws, he will consider the desirability of removing this limitation, so that the Grants may correspond to the efficiency of the service given?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThis is not a matter which can be determined apart from a general resettlement of the relations between local and Imperial finance.