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

REPORTS OF THE MINORITY,

The undersigned, while recognising the advantage of bringing before the public a complete statement of the voluntary system of relief of the poor in the Isle of Man, dissent from the foregoing Report, and are of opinion that (with the exception hereinafter referred to) no special representation is necessary to be made to your Excellency, beyond the expression of their opinion that the amount at present given in charitable relief throughout the Islandis amply suficient, if administered from properly organised centres, to meet all the requirements of the Insular poor.

They recommend that the system which appears to have worked so well in Castletown and Ramsey should be adopted, where necessary, in other centres of population in the Island; and that, before any legislative action is taken, if any is taken, a period of not less than six months be allowed to those centres to enable them to take concerted action in the direction indicated. Should cases of neglect occur, and no sufficient action be taken by any centre or district within a specified time, or should the means at the disposal of a Central or District Committee be found to be inedequate, then it might be enacted that a Committee be appointed by the Tynwald Court to inquire into the circumstances of such centre or district, and if necessary to declare it in default and to levy a rate, and administer the funds raised thereby for the support of the poor. The districts might be those specified in the Education (Isle of Man) Act.

The exception above referred to, as requiring a special representation from the Commission, is with regard to the need which may be said to have peen proved to exist for the better industrial training of neglected children. The undersigned are of opinion that a Home for boys; and one also for girls, should be established, provided that the cost of building and furnishing the same, and one-half the cost of yearly maintenance, be defrayed from the Insular Revenue, the other half of the cost of maintenance being sustained by the parishes and districts, in proportion to the number of inmates sent up from each parish or district.

George Paton, { Members of the E. C. FARRANT, } Commission. 16th April, 1879.

Milntown, October 4th, 1879.

May it Please Your Excellency,

I have the honour to agree with Messrs E. C. Farrant and G. Paton in their dissent from the foregoing Report, and also in the view to which they have given expression that the funds available for charitable relief in this Island are amply sufficent if properly administered.

I am however, of opinion that, in order to secure improved administration of poor relief, and also to provide sufficient hospital accommodation — medical assistance and industrial school training if they should be sanctioned by the Legislature—it is desirable that a permanent committee of the Tynwald Court should be appointed, with sufficient power to enable the committee to report annually to the Legislature as to the sufficiency of the provision made in the various districts of the Island to provide for the wants of the poor. and also to enable the committee to organise and control the measures necessary to effect these objects, or such of them as may receive the Sanction of the Legislature.

I have the honour to be,

Your Excellency's obedient Servant,

WILLIAM BELL CHRISTIAN, To His Excellency the Governor, &c., &c.

MR CORBETT'S SPECIAL REPORT .

Vaynor Park, Berriew, Montgomeryshire, 22-4, 1879

S1r,—It being admitted upon the face of the accompanying Report that facilities for offering in-door relief both to children and adults, and for bringing medical aid within the reach of the poorest inhabitants are urgently required by all the parishes of the Island, it would seem not unreasonable to create from the charitable bequests and endowments now locally administered, a common fund for the attainment of these objects.

To accomplish this, the simplest plan woiuld be to vest these funds, upon certain trusts for the benefit of the poor generally, in a board of management so coonstituted as to commend the confidence of the whole Island.

Such a board might consist of elected representatives from each of the parishes, and from Castletown and Ramsey Poor Relief Associations or such others as may hereafter be formed, with the Lieut.-Governor of the Island, the Lord Bishop of the diocese, the Attorney-General, and the four High-Bailiffs for the time being as ex-officio members.

Assuming the recommendations in our Report to be adopted by your Excellency, this board might well be entrusted with the duty of providing the proposed Industrial Homes for Orphans and Destitute Children, and the Cottage Hospitals at Castletown, Peel, Ramsey, and Laxey, and with the appointment and the payment of the proposed district medical officers and nurses, and the other officials neccessary for the proper care and manage- ment of these buildings and their inmates.

The amount requisite for the purchase or construction of these Homes and Cottage Hospitals could not possibly be defrayed out of the income arising from the charitable bequests and endowments now vested in the vicars and churchwardens and other trustees ; but with such assistance as your Excellency might be disposed to recommend for these purposes from the Insular Revenue, there would probably be little difficulty in raising by subscription the necessary funds. In the event of these not proving sufficient, recourse might be had to a voluntary rate in aid, as suggested in our Report.

The requisite buildings once erected, and in working order; the maintenance of these, and the salaries of the medical-officers and other officials should be made a first charge upon the income available for the common fund, and the proportion in which each parish or place should con- tribute thereto would be hereafter determined by the Board of Management.

Accounts should be kept by the board. rendered half-yearly to each parish or other contributing body, of the income received and the disbursements made on account of each ; and at the commencement of each half-year, the vicars and wardens in the parishes, and the secretaries of the Relief Associations in the towns, should send in to the board an estimate of their requirements for weekly and casual out-relief during the ensuing six months, to defray which the balance of income arising from their invested funds or real estate would be pro tanto available, and the deficiency (if any) could be made up, as at by church collections or other contributions which, being of an uncertain character, would not form part of the common fund to be administered by the suggested Board of Management.

If such a central board of trustees be constituted and the Committee of the Douglas House of Industry agree to extend and improve that instution, so as to make it available for the poor of the Island generally, negotiations could then be entered into and arrangements made between these authorities as to the terms upon which inmates should be admitted from the various parishes, and the cost of their maintenance would, in such case be defrayed half-yearly by the central board, on proper accounts being rendered by the Committee of the House of Industry.

The same course might be pursued between the Committee of Management of the Douglas Hospital charged by them to the respective parishes or places liable for the same.

Such are the main outlines of a scheme which I would gladly have embodied in our report, as being of a more simple and comprehensive character than the suggestions there thrown out; but I found it would have been quite impossible to obtain the support of any considerable number of my colleagues. One or two might have been induced to agree to a report advocating such a scheme, but the great majority would have been entirely opposed to it; and, when on more than one occasion I offered to place these views before them in a more formal manner, I met with no encouragement to do so.

At the same timeI told my colleagues that, while desirous of framing a report which should obtain the concurrence of all the members of the Commission, or of at least a large majority, I should feel it my duty to bring before your Excel- lency a suggestion for merging all charitable en- dowments in a common fund, to be administered by trustees for the benefit of the poor of the whole Island.—I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,

U. CORBETT.

To his Excellency H. B. Loch, Esq., C.B., &c., &c., Lieut.-Governor, Isle of Man.

J. C. FARGHER, PRINTER, DOUGLAS.

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