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cases in which the provision for medical relief is now inadequate, the sum received from the Grant might be substituted for an equal sum now expended from the parochial funds and that no improvement in the supply of medical relief to the poor would be effected. It is, therefore, proposed that no parish shall participate in the Government Grant which shall not have expended on medical relief in the past year, out of the poor funds, a sum at least equal to double the amount of the share apportioned to it from the Grant; and that every parish which shall have so expended such a sum, shall , at the end of the year, be reimbursed in a sum at least equal to its share of the Grant (Tables III. , IV. , V. ) . But, while fixing at this rate the minimum amount of contribution from its own funds, which would entitle a parish to participate 'The scale on which parishes have hitherto participated in the Annual Grant of £10,000 was drawn up in 1848, with a view of assigning to them a share proportioned to their comparative wants, as deduced from the population and area of each parish. The parishes were divided into seven classes, according to the density of their populations, and the same rate per head of the population was assigned as its share to every parish of a class. It was even at first only experimental, and from changes in the population and expenditure is no longer equitable as between parishes. To adjust a similar scale to an increased Grant would involve a wideand prolonged inquiry, which would necessarily delay the distribution of the Grant for several months. This delay, in itself, would be considered objectionable by the parishes interested, and it may be doubted how far a readjustment, if made, would prove either equitable or satisfactory. Several of the large town parishes have stated to the Board objections of considerable force to the allocation of the Grant on any scale similar to the present.

The Board therefore beg to submit that, in all parishes, the distribution of the Grant should be made on the principle of payments to each parish in proportion to its vouched expenditure on Medical Relief, and that this scheme should be substituted for the existing scheme under which parishes have hitherto participated, and which was approved by H.M. Secretary of State in 1848 and 1854.^[1] The original scheme would thus require to be modified to the extent above stated, viz., that the Parliamentary Grant shall be divided and distributed among the participating parishes at such rate per £ on the vouched expenditure of each as will exhaust, or as nearly as may be exhaust, the whole amount ( £20,000) voted by Parliament.

'In the meantime, the other conditions and requirements approved in 1848 and 1854 would remain in force.

'The Board, however, are of opinion that legislation would be requisite in order to place Medical Relief in Scotland on an entirely satisfactory footing, and they therefore consider the proposal now made as only temporary and provisional.

'The Board submit the above alteration in the conditions of the Grant for the consideration and approval of the Home Secretary."

I hereby approve of the Modification proposed by the foregoing Minute of the Board of Supervision of the Poor in Scotland, to be made in the scheme already approved and in force, of which a copy is attached hereto, for the distribution of the Parliamentary Grant in aid of Medical Relief for the benefit of the poor in Scotland .

W. V. Harcourt, One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.

Whitehall, August 7, 1882.