[from the Medical Aid and Poor Relief Commission Report - 1879]

CASTLETOWN POOR RELIEF SOCIETY.

The Castletown Relief Fund was founded in the year 1855, and appears to have taken its rise from representations made by the Rev E. Ferrier, the chaplain of St. Mary's, to the late Clerk of the Rolls the present Attorney-General, and others, as to the desirability of taking some steps to provide for the efficient relief of the poor, and to relieve the town from the raids of the professional beggars who then infested it.

"At that time" (we quote from the evidence of Mr Gill, the chairman of the Castletown Poor Relief Committee), "the present Attorney-General was High-Bailiff of Castletown, and, with other leading gentlemen of the town, took a great interest in the formation of this society. It is managed by a committee of ex-officio and elected members. The ex-officio members are: - The High-Bailiff of the town, the Vicar and wardens of Malew, the Chaplain of St Mary's, the Superintendent Wesleyan Minister, the Primitive Methodist Minister, the two wardens of St Mary's With regard to the wardens of Malew, there are six wardens for the parish, but the two which are elected for the town are really the only wardens of Malew who take any interest in the matter. The country wardens, although they are ex-officio members of the committee, take no part whatever in the management of the fund. The committee also contains at the present time twenty-six elected members. At one time the number was restricted to five, but from time to time it has been enlarged, and it now numbers twenty-six. They are elected annually at a public meeting called by the committee. The meeting is not confined to subscribers, but is a meeting of the public generally. Any one present at the meeting can vote. The members elect a chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer.

"The funds, &c., under the control of the committee, are derived from five sources : first, three free houses, held in trust for the poor, and more particularly described hereafter : secondly, the funds held by the vicar and wardens of the parish, and the chaplain and wardens of St Mary's for the poor; thirdly, church collections : fourthly, subscriptions to the funds; and fifthly, the proceeds of tea festival, concerts, &c.

"The highest allowance which is made by the Poor Relief Fund is 6s 1d weekly. That would be the amount allowed for, say, a man and his wife and four children. For a single case of relief our allowance is about 2s 7½d a week, and it is given in coals, bread, groceries, &c. This is the relief from our society; but the recipients may receive some slight assistance elsewhere. Two shillings and sevenpence-halfpenny is the money value of what we give. We give it in kind to those who are not safe to be trusted with money. We feel that the probability is that if they had it in money they would spend it in drink, There are some to whom we give coals, some provisions, some money, and some house rent. Some get all these kinds of relief, while others get only one kind. The article given in kind consist usually of bread 4lb., valued 6d; tea, 2oz.. valued at 3d; sugar ½lb, valued at 1½d; three herrings, valued at 3d. and ¼lb of soap, valued at 1½d, together with coals, which we value at about 6d a week, making 1s 9d a week, which forms part of the 2s 7½d. Money payments are given in sums ranging from 6d to 2s 6d per week. 2s 6d is the largest sum given in money. I may state that there are ten persons reiving money payments who do not receive other relief. They receive 15s 9d a week. There are 10 persons who receive money in addition to other relief these receiving altogether 11s 3d a week. Many of the persons who get these provisions are in the poor-house—where they live rent free—and some of them are those who have their rent paid for them. There are altogether 21 who receive money, and others only get relief either in house rent. or provisions, or coals. The supply of medicines applies to all. We give money relief only in those cases where we can trust the people. 2s a week is about the amount given in money relief at present, but it has been considerably higher than that.

"The funds are collected and administered by members of a committee, without any expense whatever. There are no paid officials except the matron of what we call the "hospital," and that is really giving it a very dignified name. The members of the committee get in and distribute the funds, nothing whatever being paid for the collection of the subscriptions. The committee meet once a week to consider applications and to transact other business. The application for relief is made either by the applicant himself, or by some member of the committee, or the clergyman of the district, or by lady visitors through the members of the committee. Very frequently we require the applicants to appear before us in person to be examined. The town is not divided into districts. We have not found it necessary to do that, but members of the committee are generally acquainted with all the circumstances of all the cases. Sometimes members of the committee are requested to see applicants at their homes. Our present curate, the Rev R. G. Brearey, has been most valuable and indefatigable in this work. Sometimes cases arise requiring special relief between the meetings of the committee; and consequently applications are very frequently made to members of the committee outside the meeting. The committee men applied to have power to grant relief meanwhile; and then the case comes on for inquiry at the next meeting. In many cases this is done. If any application is made to the Rev R. G. Brearey, relief is given to the poor at once We frequently have also special meetings to consider special cases; in fact no person is left to want. Frequently sub-committees are appointed to investigate some of these cases of relief.

"The weekly meetings of the committee are held on Wednesday evening; and on the Friday evening a sub-committee, consisting of the two members who are on duty for the month at a time attend at the stores to distribute the provisions. The provisions are sent down by the tradesmen, made up in portions ready for distribution. We have a cellar at Parson's House which we use for these stores. In fact the sub-committee of two who meet at the stores are in the position of relieving officers. They go down to the stores and see the coals weighed out, and that the distribution is properly conducted. The distribution occupies from one hour to an hour and a half, The money relief is given at the same time by the same sub-committee. At the distribution some of the poor persons assist in the distribution of the coals—in weighing out, and soon. We find them very willing to do this; then the two members who attend at the stores generally make an inspection of the poor-houses. Practically they are in every respect relieving officers, subject, however, to the direction and control of the weekly meetings of the General Committee. The members of the General Committee take it in turns to do this work. Every case is carefully inquired into before relief is granted. I do not see the slightest chance of recipients deceiving us in a small place like this. We know every case; and there is very little chance, therefore, of imposition ; but in any case of doubt or difficulty, the sub-committee make an investigation. Sometimes an attempt may be made to impose upon us ; but that is very seldom. Every case, in fact, is thoroughly well known— indeed everybody knows each other's business in a small place like this. This system appears to me to work quite as well as any compulsory system organised and carried ont by paid officers could possibly do. I do not think that anything could possibly work better than this does. Of course if we had more money we could give more relief. But I do not think more is required. If more was given it would do away with the necessity of individual exertion and have a pauperising effect.

"As the Nonconformists are represented on our committee they of course know what we are giving when an application is made from one of their body, and we get to know from them whether they are giving anything additional to their own poor. As a rule, the town generally pour their charitable contributions into the funds of our society, and it is recognised by all as the proper organisation for distributing relief to the poor. I cannot say what it would take to support a poor person. That is a matter which of course depends very much on the persons themselves. There is a very large proportion of the charitable relief of the town given by private individuals. No doubt the majority of the 36 persons whom we describe as wholly dependent on charitable relief get relief from other sources besides our committee. In every case we know perfectly well what they get, and they receive a portion of our relief accordingly. We only supplement what we know they are in the habit of getting from their friends.

With respect to bequests, we do not receive any portion of those bequests which are left solely for the benefit of the poor of Malew. No doubt legally, as the town is situated in Malew, we might claim it; but, as a matter of fact, we only get those bequests that are devised to the poor of Castletown and a portion of such bequests as may be devised to the poor of the parish of Malew and of the town of Castletown. Our relief is confined confined to our own poor.

If a beggar is importunate the rule here is that he is told to go to the Poor Relief Committee, who deal with him, and if he is deserving of it he will get relief. In a word, importunate beggars and undeserving people are not relieved by those who dispense charity privately. They know that their sase can be met by the Poor Relief Committee. With regard tothe professional house-to-house beggars, I may say that there are only three or four regular beggars in the town. Begging is very rare now under the present existing system of relief, and there need not be any. The few beggars we have are regarded as nuisances, and I have no hesitation in saying that every one is thoroughly undeserving. There are a few tramps, but not belonging to the town. If it was not for drink I do not think there would be one of these cases in Castletown As a rule they do not beg in the town, but tramp the country. They are persons who beg regularly for the purpose of getting drink, and but for this there would not be a single professional beggar in the place.

And now with regard to the housing of the poor. In the first place, I may state that we have three houses held in trust for the poor, and which are now under the management of our poor Relief Committee. The first of these is called Parson's House. It was left to the town by the late chaplain of St Mary"s. It has an endowment for repairs, and at the present time contains seven widows. I believe it is restricted to the use of women—not necessarily widows. Then there is a house called Quayle"s House, which is restricted to women. I think widows. It has an endowment for of £2 a year for repairs. Then there is Taubman"s House, which was a school belonging to the Nunnery family, but that has now been given over to the poor.

In Parson's House, at present, there is a room unoccupied. There are no poor requiring admission into the house, and we have had difficulty for some time lately in getting the house filled. In other words, our accommodation is more than sufficient for the demands. In Taubman's House there is accommodation for children. At the present time it contains five women and children, and one man. There is no restriction as to the inmates. There is no endowment.

There are three other houses which are allowed to be occupied by the poor in lieu of subscriptions to the Relief Fund. These are only allowed to be occupied by poor persons recommended by the committee. They are put down as being worth £1 6s each per year. We give the owners credit to that amount for their subscriptions to the fund. These houses will each contain about four persons. They are occupied by one family each.

In addition to this there are two houses rented by the Poor Relief Committee. They are both in Queen street. They contain 11 persons in the two. Rents are also paid for 13 other poor persons, at the rate of 6d per week each, or more; so that the total number of poor persons housed is about 50, One of these houses goes by the name of the " Hospital," for the simple reason that it was taken originally for the Hospital, and it is still used for the reception of persons who are sick, This house contains four rooms. It is the smallest of the two houses which we rent. It has no appliances whatever for a hospital. In this house we havea woman who takes care of it, and whose duty it is to look after the sick. For taking care of; this houses she is paid by the society. Her look after sick and infirm persons. With regard to the system of medical attendance, I have to say that we have no hospital, nor any regular system of medical attendance, further . than this, that we have two medical men in the town who attend to the poor gratuitously , at own houses, at the request of the committee ; and with reference to the medicine, that is gratuitously given from the funds of our society to an amount varying from £7 to £10 a year: To a limited extent, also, the committee of the Poor Relief Fund have always been ready to supply medical comforts, such as broth, beef-tea, and chicken. That is always done when recommended by the medical officer, but as a rule we act on our own judgment in these matters, and we do not wait for the medical officers' recommendation if they think it necessary that such a thing should be given. I may state, in connection with this, that a part of the church collections is appropriated for that purpose specially. One-third of the collections are given over to the clergyman of the town, and he applies it that way, and it is understood that he does so, he being on the committee. The one third which is retained by the chaplain is not mentioned in the report of the Poor Relief Commitee. We only give credit for the two-thirds which we receive. Practically the whole of the collections go towards the relief of the poor.

I have made a general summary of all the receipts of the Poor Relief Fund. There is the interest of the principal sums invested, £52 12s 6d; rents, £74 12s; collections £89 15s 10d. subscriptions and donations, £207 10s ; making a total of £424 10s 10d. The whole of these funds with the exception of the £5 for the laying-in charity, are administered by the Poor Relief Committee."

In addition to the funds administered by the Poor Relief Committee, it will be seen on reference to the tabulated return from Castletown in Appendix I., that there are moneys arising from other sources for the relief of the poor, which together amount annually to £107, of which the particulars will be found in Mr Gill"s evidence.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2026