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carried on, may be found in the amount of relief money raised as special grants—that is, from sources other than the funds of the Society itself. In 1882-3, this was £109. 18.; this year it is £331. 9s. 10d., or more than three times as much. Even this, however, does not fully represent the improvement; for in 1882-3 a special grant of £50 was received in one sum for one case, while this year the only large special grant received for a single case was £36. 10s. Deducting these two sums from the totals of their respective years, we arrive at £59. 18. in 1882--3, and £294. 19s. 10d. in this year, or very nearly five times as much this year as last.

Of course, if the Committee's work were ideally perfect, no relief money at all-except a small amount given pending investigation-would come from its own funds; but this ideal perfection does not depend on the Committee alone, and its attainment can only be hoped for after many years yet to come. In the mean time the Committee have to maintain a Relief Fund, out of which it may supplement its proper work of obtaining the right relief for the right people from the right sources; and it would urgently impress on the charitable public of Bethnal Green that all money subscribed to this fund is spent on relief alone, without any deduction for office or other expenses of any sort whatsoever; and that it is so spent after the bestowal of that painstaking care and forethought which alone can render almsgiving beneficial instead of mischievous. The expenses of the necessary inquiries into the circumstances of each case, and the best method of adequate relief, are borne by the General Expenses Fund, and, as above stated, not by the Relief Fund at all.

Concurrently with the strengthening of its work in Bethnal Green, there is to be observed in the District a considerable increase of confidence in the Society. The 'fresh' applications-i.e., those from persons who have never applied, no matter how long since, to the Committee before-alone outnumber by very nearly a hundred the total of applications, both fresh and renewed, in the preceding twelve months; while the whole number of applications, both fresh and renewed, is nearly two-thirds as many again as that in the preceding twelve months, the numbers being 533 and 328 respectively. This is certainly not due to any unusual distress in the district, since, with the exception of that caused by the great strike in the boot trade (which, strange to say, only brought about four or five applications), the distress in the district during the past year has certainly not exceeded that in the previous one. And another still more encouraging sign of the increasing appreciation of the Society's work is that more than half of the applications have been made in the latter or summer half of the official year. Any one accustomed to the work of a Charity Organisation Society's office knows how greatly, in the ordinary course of things, the number of applications in the winter halt of the year exceeds those in the summer half, and will recognise in the fact above mentioned a sure indication that confidence in thre Society's work in Bethnal Green must have increased even more in the latter than in the former half of the year. Another significant fact is that applicants are now referred to the Committee both by a greater number and a greater variety of persons than heretofore.

The percentage of applications in which relief was obtained on the total number made has increased by about two-thirds. This year it was 55 5 (296 in 533) as against 33-2 (109 in 328) in the preceding year. The Committee attribute this partly to the greater thoroughness of work mentioned in the beginning of this report, whereby methods of adequately relieving cases, which would otherwise be considered hopeless, are discovered; partly to the wider knowledge and increasing popularity of the Society's convalescent work; and partly, they would fain hope, to a somewhat better acquaintance on the part of the public with the true aims and methods of the Society, causing fewer applications for useless doles, and more for adequate relief.

This proportion of assisted cases to applications, however, is by itself no better test of good work than the amount of money given away-that is to

say, no test at all. The Committee have, therefore, adopted the plan of visiting every case, as far as possible, three months after relief has been attempted, and recording the results. Up to the end of the year, 174 cases have been thus sought out; of these 23 (including 10 emigration cases and one in which the applicant had been started hawking round the country) had removed to other lodgings, whither it would have taken more trouble than the visitor could spare to trace them, 19 cases of medical assistance, 5 in which sickness had supervened after the assistance was given, 2 in which money given had been misapplied to other purposes than those for which it was granted, and 19 others, were failures. Obviously, it is only the last mentioned 19 cases in which greater care could, by any possibility, have prevented the waste of money; and against these have to be set 106 cases of relief which proved adequate-i e., there were just about 11 successes for every 2 failures. Considering how impossible it is to make anything like a certainty of relief in any given case proving adequate, the Committee does not think that these figures at all indicate carelessness on its part in discriminating between eligible and ineligible cases.

In attempting to give specimens of the Committee's work, the difficulty arises that circumstances differ so widely in different cases that it is hard to select any as presenting a normal type. The following, however, are three instances of good results:

1. A young man of 21, a brassfitter, formerly in the employ of an eminent firm of electricians, had been for six months out of work, owing to his employers giving up the special branch of manufacture in which he was employed. He had been doing a little work at the docks, but had been principally supported by his parents, and was anxious to emigrate, to which his family were willing to contribute, though they could only raise a small part of the total cost (£7. 17s.) of his passage and outfit. From the family, the clergy, the Society for the Relief of Distress, the magistrate, and private persons, £7 was obtained; the odd 178. had to be taken from the funds of the Committee. He has now been some nine months in Australia, and his mother has received two letters from him (one within the past few weeks), giving a most glowing account of the prosperity in which he finds himself.

2. A family in a hopeless state of distress applied for assistance. There was, however, one girl, who it was thought might be saved from her miserable surroundings; but she was under school age. The School Board, on application being made, very kindly excused the girl from attendance, and she was sent to a Training Home, and thence to service. Subsequently the husband deserted his wife, who, with the other children, had to go to the workhouse; but the girl in question was doing well in her place, and liked it.

3. A lady from the West End wrote to have inquiries made as to a woman who had stopped her in the street and begged of her, saying that her husband had been sent to prison, and she was destitute. It was found that this was true; the wife's character was good, and that the husband had committed the theft for which he was imprisoned under great temptation, and that there was a good chance of his retrieving his character. On this being reported to the lady, she seut £1 in addition to a few shillings she had previously sent for interim relief; and the wife, who had in the meantime got a little work, asked that it might be kept till her husband was discharged, and then given for stock money. This was done, and with satisfactory results, the family being found, when subsequently visited, to have been genuinely benefited by the gift, and the husband having been very steady since his release.

Perhaps the most conspicuous failure was the following: An application was made for a grant to keep up instalments on the price of a sewing machine, and so save it from seizure. It appeared that out of twenty-two payments due since the machine was got, only seven had been made, so that it was not even paying for itself, let alone bringing in a profit. The husband was chronically ill, and earning little or nothing. The Committee considered that the case was

hopeless, but on the strenuous assurances of a worker among the poor (it may be mentioned, to prevent misconception, that he was a strong opponent of the Society) that the wife had hitherto been only an improver,' and was now a capable worker, and with work coming in, and as the husband went into the infirmary, they obtained eight weeks' instalments from the Society for the Relief of Distress, and relief in kind from the clergy. At the end of the eight weeks it was perfectly clear that the woman was quite incapable of earning even the semblance of a living, and that it would therefore be useless to pay any more instalments. Subsequently the woman sold the machine, and when the money was gone went into the workhouse with all her family.

Among the cases decided to be ineligible'-i e., in which adequate relief is considered hopeless, though not necessarily through any fault of the applicant's own the following two may suffice:

1. A widow applied for the grant of a mangle. Inquiries, however, showed that the neighbourhood in which she lived was already overstocked with mangles, and that to start another would injure, if not ruin, the owners of the existing ones; while the new one would have no chance of success. She was therefore told that a mangle could only be given her if she could find a suitable lodging in a neighbourhood where there was a prospect of success, and the case was deferred for a week to enable her to look for one. The next week she came to the Committee, and said she would not move from her present lodging, and insisted on having a mangle there; and on this being refused flew into a passion, and said, 'she would have a letter written to the papers about this.'

2. A widow, of immoral life and drunken habits, applied for an outfit for her eldest daughter to go to service. The Committee decided to make a grant of £1 to get the girl a few weeks' preliminary training in a home, and another £1 to provide an outfit for a place to be found for her by the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, and so save her from a life of misery, and probably vice. The mother, however, refused to let the girl go, obtained for her a wretched place at 1s. 6d. a week and her food, and then claimed the money, which was of course refused her.

The above two cases are very instructive, as showing how allegations of ill treatment of the poor by the Society are often manufactured. It will be seen that, without telling any direct falsehood, but simply by suppressing material facts, they might both be made to appear cases of great hardship.

The 'Not Requiring Relief' heading may be illustrated by the following instance:-A man who had been some time out of work from weak health applied to be sent to a convalescent home. There were seven children at home, four of whom were earning among them £3. 16s. a week and the board of one of them. He was unable to state the earnings of a fifth, a bootmaker on her own account; and two were dependent. There was also 148. a week coming in from his club. The Committee thought that this was hardly a case for charity to intervene.

The Undeserving' cases are chiefly instructive by the side light they sometimes throw on the utter recklessness with which many people must fling away their money in miscalled 'charity,' caring nothing whatever whether the results are good or evil :

1. A young woman, who had swindled one clergyman in the district by the 'missing Post Office order' trick, tried to do the same by another, who referred her to the Committee. Apart from plenty of other evidence as to her utter worthlessness, she gave (correctly) her two previous addresses, both of which she had robbed; for which, on the prosecution of one of the landladies, she was subsequently sent to jail.

2. A man who applied for assistance gave the name of his last employer, a tradesman, and also of his last but one, a public institution, correctly. He said he was called on to resign his position at the latter on account of a trifling dereliction of duty, which might have been forgiven if the matter had been thoroughly gone into, and that he had left the former owing to a slight differ

ence. It proved that he had been dismissed from the institution for dishonesty and general misconduct; and that he had robbed his last employer, who had been a most kind benefactor to him, of his watch when he was suffering from a fit.

Now, had not both these persons been perfectly certain from past experience, either their own or their neighbours, that not even a semblance of inquiry would be made before money (it would be a misuse of words to say charity) was given them, they would hardly have been so communicative.

The Committee day has been changed from Friday to Thursday, as the amount of correspondence consequent on the increased number of cases was found to necessitate the attendance of the Hon. Secretary at the office till late in the afternoon of the day following Committee; and when this was Saturday the Agent's half-holiday-delay and inconvenience were likely to arise. By the present arrangement all the more urgent business necessitated by the decisions of the Committee can be settled between the Hon. Secretary and the agent before midday on Saturday.

The Committee has sustained a severe loss by the departure from Bethnal Green of the Rev. C. Kirton and Mrs. Kirton, owing, they regret to say, to the ill health of the former. For the same reason he had not recently attended the Committee meetings, but Mrs. Kirton was a most energetic and valuable member, and her place will be hard to fill. Another member, though not recently an active one, Mr. Woodin, has been removed, to the Committee's deep regret, by the hand of death.

Mrs. Kirton's place as representative in Council has been taken by the Rev. J. D. M'Gachen, who was compelled by the change in the day of meeting to resign the position of Hon. Secretary, which he had so ably filled.

The Rev. A. B. Lamplugh has kindly consented to undertake the work of Assistant Hon. Secretary.

The Committee have to tender their thanks to Messrs. Price, Waterhouse, & Co. for their liberality in auditing the accounts for the past year free of charge.

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THERE is little change to report in the condition of the District during the past year. Certainly the circumstances of the poorer classes cannot be said to have improved. Work is still very irregular, and earnings consequently small, especially among those who are casually employed. This depression of trade has naturally made itself felt among the costermongers and other small dealers who make up so large a part of the population of the District, and thus the distress, if not exceptional, has been widely spread. The number of paupers in the union, and of applicants to the Committee, shows a scarcely perceptible increase during the year just closed. It appears from the classified analysis of cases that rather more than half of those who have applied have in one way or other been assisted.

The convalescent work of the Committee has, as was anticipated, considerably increased. This is chiefly owing to the prompt and efficient working of the Central Convalescent Committee, by means of which cases sent up from the different Districts can usually obtain admission within a week to some

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