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Trade Facilities Act, 1921, and the Export Credits Scheme efforts have been made to stimulate industry and trade to greater activity in order to enable unemployed persons to find work in their own trades. Local authorities and public utility companies, with the assistance of a Government grant, have undertaken, as relief works, various schemes of public utility. Necessarily both these efforts to provide work for the unemployed have had to proceed slowly, and no work provision has been possible for the great majority of the unemployed. For these there has been available unemployment insurance benefit by virtue of contributions paid whilst in employment, and the ordinary insurance provisions have been extended to provide for dependants' allowance and for uncovenanted benefit in certain circumstances. Lastly, public provision has been made, in cases of proved necessity, by relief under the poor laws and by assistance under child welfare and feeding of school children schemes.

All the above remedial measures are too well known to require any detailed description here, but it may be useful to record the extent to which the various measures have been utilised to relieve unemployed persons in Scotland during the year 1923. We have stated previously that the average number of insured persons out of employment in Scotland during the year was 181,491, the figures fluctuating between 214,727 and 169,720.

(i.) Trade Facilities Act and Export Credit Scheme.-Under the Trade Facilities Act the Treasury were empowered, on the advice of an advisory committee, to guarantee the payment of interest and principal, or either interest or principal, of loans raised in connection with capital undertakings, provided the loans are expended in such a way as to relieve unemployment in Great Britain. Under the Export Credits Scheme, which is intended to facilitate the resumption of the ordinary means whereby traders can obtain facilities from their bankers to enable them to finance their export trade, the Government guarantee drafts drawn against shipments of goods exported from Great Britain to approved countries abroad.

We are informed by the Board of Trade that, under the Trade Facilities Act, out of approximately £40,000,000 of guarantees since the Act came into force, some £8,000,000 would be expended in Scotland, and that almost the whole of this would go to the shipbuilding and engineering trades. Under the Export Credits Scheme the amount sanctioned for firms in Scotland is £796,695, and the amount of guarantees taken up £480,233.

(ii) Relief Works.-Information as to relief work schemes sanctioned by the Unemployment Grants Committee as qualifying for grant will be found on pages 177-178 of this Report. In addition to grant schemes, a number of smaller schemes have been carried out by local authorities without State assistance.

(iii.) Unemployment Benefit.-We are informed by the Ministry of Labour that the amount paid during the year by employment exchanges in Scotland in direct benefit was approximately £5,500,000. In addition, unemployment benefit was paid indirectly by certain. trade union associations. Particulars as to the exact amount paid out in this way was not available when this Report was prepared, but it is stated to be a comparatively small sum.

(iv.) Poor Relief. The poor relief aspect of the situation is dealt with specially on pages 172-177 of this Report.

In addition to the relief provided out of public funds, exceptional efforts have been made through schemes of public charity to assist in alleviating the poverty consequent on the trade depression. The outstanding example was in Port Glasgow, a shipbuilding centre seriously affected by the depression, where, up till September, 1922, the whole of the funds required to relieve the necessitous unemployed was provided out of charitable subscriptions, no expenditure by the parish council being necessary. During this period the Charity Organisation Society disbursed roughly £10,000 by vouchers exchangeable for milk, bread, groceries, etc. After September, 1922, the operations of the Society were suspended, mainly owing to lack of funds, but recent reports indicate that the Society again had funds available, its Relieving Committee having been authorised to disburse assistance up to a maximum of £1500 during the winter of 1923-24. These funds were to be utilised mainly in providing boots and stockings for children and in giving assistance to necessitous persons who were reluctant to apply to the parish Council.

In other important industrial towns, organised public charity has very materially assisted in alleviating the situation. The Secretary to the Glasgow Charity Organisation Society estimates that within the City a sum of at least £1000 per week is disbursed by various charitable associations. The amount received by the Lord Provost's Fund in Glasgow from December, 1920, to December, 1923, was £127,582, the number of cases assisted being approximately 57,000. In Edinburgh the Lord Provost's Rent Relief Fund has disbursed £18,052 between September, 1921, and December, 1923. In other areas Provosts' and Police Funds are actively assisting, particularly with arrears of rent, and with boots and clothing for children. For example in Kilmarnock, the Provost's Fund has expended in the three years to September, 1923, £5327, 980 persons having been assisted with rent and 1863 with food. In Paisley the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor endeavours to reach necessitous persons not dealt with by the parish council or other agencies. There is also a Provost's Fund for which about £2700 has been subscribed, and which is used for assisting specially hard cases with payment of rent. In Greenock £5250 has been subscribed towards the Provost's Fund. About £1550 has been spent on food, about £2700 on assistance with rent, and about £420 in the provision of meals to children under school age.

It is extremely difficult to estimate how far the reduction in the number of unemployed during the year 1923 has been due merely to the rising tide of trade activity, and how far to the special measures taken by the Government and by local authorities and public utility companies to provide work artificially. It is only by a real recovery of trading activity that any significant reduction in the number of unemployed may be expected.

THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE.

From the information and impressions gathered by our officers it would appear that the prevailing note in regard to the future is one

of optimism that trade conditions are now definitely moving towards recovery. Opinions differed as to the rate of probable progress, and few persons ventured to predict more than a slow movement extending over the next two or three years. But the note of optimism, though often guarded and hesitating, was there. Recent trade returns revealing a steady improvement encouraged the belief that the hopes for the future are based on sure grounds, and that they are not doomed to the same disappointment that awaited those expressed at the beginning of each of the two preceding years. It was generally felt that most of the essentials to a distinct revival of trade now existed, money being cheaper and the price levels sufficiently stable to give manufacturers confidence to produce for the replacement of depleted stocks instead of manufacturing practically only for orders actually received. For the same reason consumers who had delayed to purchase in the hope of cheaper prices had now no incentive for longer delay. Stability of price levels in this country does not, of course, solve the whole problem; there remains the question of the dislocation of our European markets, and the question of competition in other markets with countries with depreciated currencies. On these aspects of the situation the ground for optimism was less sure.

The question of trade recovery leads naturally to the question of surplus population, and while it is perhaps, for our present purpose, looking too far into the future to discuss whether industry can ever absorb all the persons now unemployed, it may be of interest to record views expressed to our officers on this question. In many districts it is reported that there is a surplus of workers over normal needs. This applies particularly, though not wholly, to special areas where, during the war period, large Government factories were established, or where munitions contracts were being carried out. Workers thus artificially introduced into an area have remained during the period of depression, the universal housing shortage having no doubt added to the difficulties of dispersing, and for many of these there is little hope of absorption in the industry of the area when better times come. Whether, in localities affected in this way, it is possible to create new industries to take the place of the special war industries depends on the position and resources of the locality, and ultimately on the course of trade generally. The whole question of surplus population in industrial areas, as a whole, or in particular areas, with its relationship to emigration and rural depopulation, is one that seems to call for further investigation, if only to ensure that the revival of trade will not be retarded by any delay in placing employers in areas where workers are required in touch with workers in areas where there is a surplus population.

Audit of Parish Council, Combination Poorhouse and
District Board of Control Accounts.

During the year the annual audit of the accounts of parish councils combination poorhouses and district boards of control for

1922-23 was completed for all but ten parish councils, one combination poorhouse and three district boards of control.

INTERIM REPORTS.

Seven interim reports were submitted to us by parish auditors, of which three have been dealt with. In two of these three cases, we upheld the auditor's opinion, but made no surcharge as the circumstances in which the payments had been incurred justified the exercise of our power of abstaining from surcharge. In the other case we held the expenditure to be legal.

The two interim reports in respect of expenditure incurred during the year 1921-22 which had not been finally dealt with when our last Report was submitted were disposed of during the year. In one case the expenditure was held to be legal; in the other we declared the expenditure to be illegal but made no surcharge.

The payments declared to be illegal were as follows:

(1) repayments by a district board of control to certain asylum attendants of their contributions under the Asylum Officers' Superannuation Act, 1909;

(2) payments in excess of a reasonable scale of subsistence allowance to parish councillors and officials absent from the parish on official business;

(3) aliment paid in excess of the "sufficient means of subsistence" authorised by the Poor Law (Scotland) Act, 1845.

Parish Councils.

PARISH COUNCIL ELECTIONS: EXPENSES.

We were called upon in one instance to exercise our duty under Section 14 (2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1894, where a parish council and the county council had failed to agree in ascertaining and apportioning the expenses of the last election of parish councillors.

The circumstances were as follows. At the principal election the Returning Officer rejected a nomination paper. This caused a deficiency in the number of parish councillors elected, and it was accordingly necessary for us to issue an Order for a supplementary election. Subsequently, however, the candidate whose nomination paper had been rejected raised an action against the Returning Officer for declarator that he had been duly elected. The Returning Officer entered appearance, but the action was not defended and the candidate was duly declared elected. The items in the amount allocated to the parish council by the county council to which the parish council took exception were (1) the expenses incurred by the county council in the action against the Returning Officer, and (2) the proportion of the expenses incurred in the supplementary election, which was, of course, abortive. We held, however, that the parish council were liable for the full amount charged by the county council and determined accordingly.

DISQUALIFICATION OF PARISH COUNCILLORS.

We had occasion to consider the position of a parish councillor who had accepted a sub-contract for certain work in connection with the extension of the parish council's offices. The original contract was between the parish council and an employee of the councillor. We expressed the opinion that the councillor had incurred disqualification under Section 20 (1) of the Act.

VACCINATION.

In reply to an enquiry we stated that, in our opinion, it would not be competent for a parish council to expend the rates on propagandist work with a view to securing a higher percentage of infaut vaccination.

BURIAL GROUNDS.

Power of Parish Council to charge for Lairs in a Churchyard

transferred from Heritors.

It has always been held by us and by our predecessors that a parish council is not entitled to charge for lairs in a churchyard transferred to them from the heritors. We were asked whether it would be competent for a parish council to set aside a portion of a churchyard so transferred for free burial, and to charge a registration fee, varying from £1 to £5 per lair, for lairs in the remaining part of the ground. We replied to the effect that while we had no power to give a binding opinion, we did not consider the proposal competent.

Provisional Orders.

We scrutinised Provisional Orders promoted by Scottish local authorities under the provisions of the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899, and deposited with us in accordance with No. 33 (7) of the General Orders framed under that Act; and in accordance with No. 95 of these General Orders, Reports were submitted to the Secretary for Scotland on certain provisions in the undermentioned Provisional Orders bearing upon matters which come within our jurisdiction.

The principal provisions referred to in the Reports were given effect to in the Orders as confirmed.

Glasgow Corporation;

Greenock Corporation;

*Baldovan Institution for Treatment and Education of Defectives;

Glasgow Blind Asylum.

The above Orders, with the exception of that relating to Baldovan Institution, were duly confirmed by Parliament.

*Not confirmed.

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