The second report of the Relief Commissioners bears date the 15th of
May. For practical purposes it may be looked upon as the first report,
the one called the first being merely preliminary. We learn from it that
only 1,248 electoral divisions had come under the operation of the Act
up to that date, a state of things with which the Commissioners
expressed themselves dissatisfied, for they say the Act should have
been, at the time of their report, in full operation over the whole
country. They found a difficulty in establishing soup kitchens, because
dry meal was universally preferred; and they further say that relief by
food instead of by public works was extremely unpopular with every
class. All works, they announce, had been stopped on the first of May.
To this general stoppage, some exceptions, it would seem, were
permitted. Memorandum No. 12 of the Relief Department (marked
"confidential") vests certain relief officers with a discretionary power
to continue the works in those baronies where it would be dangerous to
stop them, either because the new measures of relief had not come into
operation, or on account of the absence of employment, either public or
private, in such baronies.
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