Out of 127 Unions, which were under the Act,
fifty-five had had no advances made to them, on estimate, for any period
after the 15th of August; twenty-six more ceased to call for advances on
the 29th of August; and the remainder were to cease on the 12th of
September, with the exception of the advances to the fever hospitals,
which were continued to the 30th of September.
The Commissioners expressed the opinion that the discontinuance of
relief had not been attended by the suffering which might have been
apprehended. They say the relief "was made a system of bonus rather than
of necessity, which increased the expenditure in an enormous degree."
We learn from this sixth report that the Commissioners had expended a
sum approaching L2,000.000 within a period of eight months, through the
agency of upwards of two thousand committees, constituted by general
regulation, and subject only to a very general control. Such being the
case, the testimony borne by the inspecting officers to those
committees, is highly creditable to them; the inspecting officers, says
the report, "express their belief that there has been almost a total
absence of misappropriation of _money_ by committees.
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