18 



l)e sent either at their own, or at their employer's expense, as 

 might be arranged, or in order to keep them or theirs from 

 becoming objects of charity, some help might be given from 

 the public purse ; and in the second, the State would often be 

 a gainer by bearing the whole cost of their transit, if it were 

 thereby relieved of all further expense on their account ; but 

 whenever the cost of transport could be recovered, it should 

 "be done. A notification of the despatch of any such person 

 should be posted to the employer, containing a directed and 

 franked form, on which he should be requested to note the arrival 

 of the person so sent, then to return the form, as addressed, 

 to the Labour Office. Any person whose passage had been 

 paid, who had thus been forwarded to an employer, and who 

 without valid excuse, had failed to present himself, or had 

 left his service before the time of his engagement had expired, 

 should, if he were found idling or begging, be sent to the 

 House of Correction to hard labour; and with this view, 

 the co-operation of the municipalities should be solicited. 

 Such an arrangement could, however, be much better worked 

 if the police were under the control of the general Govern- 

 ment. 



By thus bringing employers and unemployed into con- 

 nection, the towns, where there is a surplus of labour, would 

 be cleared of able-bodied men who are really desirous of 

 getting work, but either know not where to obtain it, or have 

 not the means of finding their way into the country ; and those 

 who are too idle to work, and prefer to prey upon others, would 

 be seen in their true colours, and treated accordingly. 



Relief should never be given in the form of money if it 

 can be given in kind, and whenever practicable, a certain 

 amount of work should be required as an equivalent, from 

 women and children, as well as from men. The former 

 might be employed in making up clothes, er washing for 

 the children in the Queen's Asylum, the Hospitals and other 

 Government establishments; the men in public works — stone 

 breaking, &c. The avoiding money payments, the helping 

 people to help themselves, and the exacting a quid pro quo in 

 the shape of labour, would conduce to preserve the feeling of 

 self respect, which is always impaired if it be not altogether 

 destroyed, by the acceptance of eleemosynary aid, and to 

 foster or form habits of industry, and might be regarded as 

 one mode of industrial education for the more indigent 

 classes. 



A well-organised system such as that established in Boston, 

 and described in Macmillan for November last, would do 

 much to relieve the public funds, the charge upon which for 



