suitable Home. The Convalescent Committee unfortunately found itself unable to continue the plan of receiving cases from the Districts free of all charge, and now requires a remittance of 10s. with each case. But this expense can be avoided by any Committee which undertakes to raise extra subscriptions to the amount of £25 annually, and thus enables the Convalescent Committee to engage an additional bed. Beds so engaged may bear the name of the Committee which supports them. Whitechapel has decided that it is desirable to adopt this plan, and the Hon. Secretaries will be glad to hear from any who may be willing to subscribe specially for this purpose.

A Sanitary Aid Committee has been formed in the District, and is in full operation. The chairman is an active member of this Committee.

The ladies of the Committee have kept up, except during the summer months, their kind and useful work of revisiting, after an interval of three months, applicants who had been assisted. This has proved an efficient means of testing and improving the Committee's work, and keeping up a friendly relation with the applicants.

The Committee have long felt that their present office is not in all respects a suitable one. It is not in their own District, and it is scarcely roomy enough for the purposes of the two Committees which use it. Accordingly, when an opportunity recently occurred of engaging the first floor at 28 Commercial Street, a portion of the buildings occupied by the Society for the Extension of University Teaching, the Committee, after careful consideration, decided to close with the offer. The new office lies in the very centre of the Union, and it is hoped that the change will tend to increased work and usefulness. The Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, whose work is so useful to the Committee, occupies a part of the same house, and co-operation between the two will thus be greatly facilitated, while the new University Settlement, so soon to be opened, is close at hand. Should the removal lead to an increased number of applications, and a larger use of the Society by the Clergy and others interested in improving the condition of the poor, the defect which the Committee most regrets in its work, namely, its smallness, will be diminished.

In conclusion they heartily thank all those societies or persons who have helped them, whether by gifts of money, by personal help and work, or by useful information.

It has become the custom for each Committee in issuing its yearly Report to subscribers to reiterate the main principles of the Society, and to give some explanation of its own manner of interpreting them.

We cannot do so for ourselves more shortly than by saying that we conceive ourselves pledged to common sense, and to nothing more, in the matter of almsgiving.

The Parish of St. George's (East) is one of the poorest in London. The employment of dock labourers and needlewomen is precarious, and the average weekly earnings very low.

The causes which regulate the rate of wages lie far beyond the control of any charitable society, but every one who has given any attention to the subject knows that a system which encourages a wide and indiscriminate distribution of alms to persons simply because they are poor, is as certain in the long run to reduce wages as that two and two make four.

Our Society has always insisted that those who have the interests of the poor most at heart should bear this in mind.

Notwithstanding the scanty earnings of dock labourers and needlewomen, there are numbers who by industry and self-denial maintain a family respectably, make provision for a day of sickness, and who, though poor, are honourably independent.

These persons do not require, and do not come to us for assistance. We must not, however, forget them and their interest when others of a different character come to us for aid.

The thrifty man has earned, and is entitled to retain, an advantage over the improvident in the competition which there is for work, and we should be acting with great injustice if we were systematically to enable the improvident to compete on equal terms with the provident. It is a painful, but necessary

duty for persons who are systematically engaged in charitable work to have regard to these, the remoter consequences of their acts. We dwell thus on the difficulty of the subject in order to excuse our own shortcoming, and to urge on those who are working in the same field, but with different methods, the necessity of caution and discrimination.

Let us now say a word on the cases which we think we are justified in helping, and also make an appeal to our readers for the assistance which is necessary to enable us to do our work properly.

What we require is a more extended circle of persons to whom we may refer cases of distress.

Several private persons have been kind enough to tell us that we may look to them to deal with cases of a certain type. We should be glad to hear from ladies who are willing to give clothes to girls who are going out to service, or from ladies who will undertake to visit and look after young women who wish to reform their way of life.

It is frequently desirable to send children to institutions for a prolonged period. We should be glad to hear from persons who are willing to find the whole, or part of, the means for this.

The liberality of one of our subscribers has enabled us to take out of the workhouse several blind persons who had been there for years. The lot of the blind in the workhouse is a very hard one. We cannot but think that many might wish to join in alleviating a misfortune which for the poor is crushing.

Another of our subscribers gives us practically 'carte blanche' to relieve at his expense cases of distress in a particular district, and when he is in London he visits the cases which we recommend to him.

Philanthropic persons wishing to visit and relieve the poor cannot act on a better plan than this; rich men living in other parts of London have often no opportunity of coming in contact with the deserving poor, and if left to themselves are apt to become a prey to beggars and impostors of all kinds. Through our agent, and through the clergy and their visitors, we are made aware of very many genuine cases of distress, and we would gladly refer some of these to anyone really desiring to come into personal contact with the poor.

But it would be too long to enumerate the many ways in which we could utilise the services of persons who wish to work among the poor.

There is, however, one more point which we would urge. Many have only a few hours in the week which they can devote to charitable work.

The isolated efforts of such persons are apt to be wasted; they should be made in co-operation with others.

Our system of organisation offers a nucleus to which such persons should attach themselves. By joining a committee of our Society they would at once be put in the way of informing themselves as to the condition of the poor, they would be brought in contact with the clergy, almoners, and visitors in the district, and with others who take an interest in and have information to give on most questions of social reform; and if they find the task of organising charitable relief' an irksome one, they would be brought within view of other fields of beneficent labour in which they may find profitable and congenial employment.

STEPNEY COMMITTEE.

Chairman-*+ Rev. S. A. THOMPSON-YATES.

The Clergy and Ministers of all denominations in the district and the Guardians of the Poor ex-officio.

Bankers-THE LONDON AND COUNTY BANK, LIMITED, LIMEHOUSE Branch.
Office-270 Burdett Road, Limehouse. E.

Hours-10 to 11 A.M., and 4 to 5 PM. Saturdays, 10 to 11 A.M. only.
Committee meets at Burdett Road on Tuesdays, at 2.30 P.M. and at
Vestry Hall, Shadwell, on Fridays at 11 A.M.

• Almoners for the Society for the Relief of Distress.
Ex-officio Members of Council.
Representative at Council.

REPORT.

In comparing the work of this Committee during the twelve months ending on the 30th September last with that of the previous year, the first point of difference that presents itself is the great decrease in the number of cases 'not assisted.' In 1882-83 there were 302 cases under this heading, against 229 in the present year-a falling off of 73.

Of cases assisted' there were in 1882-83 322, and in 1883-84 309, or only 13 less; so that of a total number of 538 applicants we assisted more than 57, per cent., while in the previous year, as stated in our Report, out of 624 cases only 51 per cent. were assisted.

At first sight it is not easy to reconcile these facts with what we know of the past and present state of the district. For it is well known that the condition of the people is getting worse and worse. There are not only more working men out of employment, but this unsatisfactory condition is creeping steadily upwards in the social scale, so as to affect a superior class of workmen, namely, those whose skill and good character had hitherto secured them tolerable regularity of employment. Our work in connection with the Foresters' Clubs brings us into frequent contact with this better class of workmen, and some of them now find themselves, to use their own language, 'at their wits' end' to keep themselves above water. When first-rate workmen are heard thus to complain, the number of second-rate and less reliable artisans who are more or less constantly out of work may easily be imagined;

and if the coming winter should be one of even ordinary severity, the probable consequences are by no means agreeable to contemplate.

In our last Report it was stated that in the opinion of the Committee the general prosperity of the district, as well as of some parts adjoining it, had of late been decidedly on the decline; that the number of unemployed hands was increasing, and wages diminishing; and it was suggested that the diminution in the proportion of cases assisted, as compared with that of the previous year, was probably owing to a larger proportion of the applicants having sunk below the state in which timely help might have enabled them to raise themselves to independence either of Poor Law or charitable relief.

Hence it might be argued that the average of cases assisted having risen from 51 to 57 per cent. tends to show an improvement in the state of the district. But such, unhappily, is not the true account of the matter. The change is rather due to the strict enforcement during the past year of an order of the Committee to the effect that all able-bodied applicants, whose distress was owing solely to want of work, should be informed by the Agent that there was no probability of the Committee being able to help them. Very few of these, after being thus warned, persisted in wishing for an investigation which promised to have no useful result for them; and their cases were not taken, but simply reported to the Hon. Secretary. By this means the office has been relieved of much useless labour, and applicants whom it was impossible for us to help of much vexation and disappointment; while one of the causes of needless irritation against the Society has been partially removed. The percentage of assisted cases has thus naturally increased, as shown by the figures quoted.

The large diminution in the number of reports sent out—152, against 722is owing to the practice of reporting every case to the clergy, and all cases in any way connected with the Poor Law to the Guardians, having been discontinued; no member of the Committee being any longer willing to undertake this work, which was not thought to be of any great practical importance, and the Agent not having time for it.

Our balance sheet shows that £180. 1s. 3d. was expended in 'relief of cases,' as against £154. 8s. last year; while £77 was received in donations and subscriptions for this purpose, against £57. 16s. 6d.

The expenditure for special cases,' as compared with last year, was £714. 1s. 3d., against £717. 18s. 7d. in 1882-83. Of this, nearly the same amount as last year, viz., £461. 16s., was spent on pension cases, for which we obtained £297. 3s. 6d. from the Tower Hamlets Pension Committee, and £160. 8s. from other sources, including notices in the Reporter.

The pension cases are a special feature of the Committees in the unions where no out-relief is given, and the pensioners are carefully chosen from the best applicants, and the number increases year by year. We now have 46 pensioners on our books, and this gives most interesting and agreeable work to the almoners, who visit or see the pensioners regularly and get to know the old people well.

This work of visiting pensioners is admirably suited to people living in the district, and we should be glad to receive offers to take up the almonership of new cases as they come forward.

Only £7. 18. has been advanced in the past year by way of loan.

On the whole it will be seen that £931. 38. 6d. has been expended in charitable relief, of which £80 has been received from the Council for relief purposes generally.'

With regard to loans, the experience of the Committee has led them to the conclusion that this form of assistance is, generally speaking, unsuitable in this district. Comparatively few of those whom we have helped in that way have ever raised themselves to such a position that it was possible to get repayment from them without having recourse to the County Court. Their sureties were often reduced to the same struggling condition, and the result of the appeal we did make in one or two instances to that tribunal did not encourage us to repeat it. We have therefore latterly made loans only under exceptional circumstances, and have thought it useless to keep up our Loan Fund to its original amount by repaying bad debts from our General Fund.