No person should be employed on any relief works who can obtain employment on other public works, or in farming or other private operations in the neighbourhood.
The wages given to persons employed on relief works should, in every case, be at least 2d. a day less than the average rate of wages in the district.
And the persons employed on relief works should, to the utmost possible extent, be paid in proportion to the work actually done by them.
Their Lordships suggest for the consideration of the Lord Lieutenant, that it may be advisable that in every case in which it may be determined to assemble extraordinary sessions, for tin presentment of works under the 10th Vict, cap. 107, instructions should also be issued to the lieutenant of the county, to reassemble the relief committees of the districts in which such works are proposed to be carried on, making such changes in the individuals composing the committees as circumstances may require; or, if no relief committees have yet been organized in the districts in question, to appoint new committees in accordance with the rules prescribed by the relief commission.
Their Lordships also suggest that, in order to obviate inconveniences which have been experienced during the late relief operations, the following alterations should be made in the instructions under which the local relief committees have hitherto acted:—
First, with regard to the assistance given by the relief committees in the proper appropriation of the relief provided under the 10th Viet. cap. 107, by means of public works:—
That tickets should not hereafter be issued by the relief committees entitling persons to employment on such public works. That, instead thereof, the relief committees should furnish (according to a form to be supplied to them for that purpose) the officers in charge of the works on the part of the Board of Works, with lists of persons requiring relief, noting them in the order in which they are considered to be entitled to priority, either on account of their large families or from any other cause; that the committees should revise these lists from time to time, as occasion may require, and that the officers of the Board of Works, from the information contained in these lists, or acquired by them from other sources, should themselves furnish tickets entitling persons to employment on the relief works, for certain limited periods, according to the circumstances of each case.
Secondly, as regards the functions performed by the relief committees, independently of the relief works carried on under the provisions of Acts of Parliament.
Their lordships consider that donations in aid of private subscriptions may be made, when necessary, as heretofore, from the public funds placed for that purpose at the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant; and that these donations may continue to be, as a general rule, in the proportion of from one-third to one-half of the amount of the private subscriptions, according to the extent of the destitution and the means of the subscribers.
But their lordships are of opinion, that, in consideration of the assistance so to be given from the public purse, the proceedings of the relief committees in the appropriation of the funds administered by them should be subjected to any degree of control on the part of the Government that may be considered desirable; for which purpose their accounts and correspondence should, at all times, be open to the inspection of Government officers appointed for the purpose, and any further explanations that may be required on any particular point should be immediately furnished.