404 LAND REFORM 



An alleged decline in pauperism is frequently put 

 lorward as a proof of an improvement in the position 

 of the poorer classes ; but pauperism, whether increas- 

 ing or decreasing, is not a trustworthy gauge of the 

 actual condition of the mass of the people of this 

 country. As a matter of fact, the decrease in the 

 number of paupers is too small to allow any useful 

 argument to be founded on it. 



The returns of the Local Government Board deal- 

 ing with pauperism are compiled in an admirable and 

 exhaustive manner. It can hardly be expected, how- 

 ever, that the ordinary ratepayer can devote the 

 necessary time to examine the large number of tables 

 in which the information given is contained. A few 

 facts, obtained by condensing and dissecting the 

 figures given in the Report, might be instructive.^ 



During the past 25 parochial years (i 881-1905) 

 the mean number of paupers returned in each 

 year varied between 30'8 and 24*3 per 1000 of the 

 estimated population. In 1881 the ratio was 30*8 per 

 1000. In 1 90 1 (the lowest in the 25 years) it was 

 24*3 per 1000. Since 1901 the rate has been rising, 

 till the present year (1905) it was 26*2. In the same 

 period of years the ratio of able-bodied adults, exclud- 

 ing casual paupers, varied between 4'i per 1000 of the 

 estimated population in 1881 (in 1882 it was 3*9) and 

 3*4 per 1000 in 1905. 



But if we turn to the money cost of pauperism we 

 find that the demands on the ratepayers are ever 

 increasing. In the year 1881 the total expenditure on 



the race, hereafter to grow there, maintain either the strength of limb, or 

 the energy of heart which raised their fathers to the lofty eminence which 

 they achieved and bequeathed." — '* Oceana," J. A. Froude (Longmans). 



' "Thirty-fourth Annual Report," Local Government l^oard, Cd. 2661, 

 1904 5. The figures in all cases relate to England and Wales. 



