be very considerable. So, too, with the Old Age Pensions Act. Not only do a large number of old age pensioners continue to receive poor relief, but the Act is actually bringing upon the Poor Law a number of people who would otherwise have been maintained either by themselves or by their relations. When the pauper disqualification was removed there was, of course, a large transfer of outdoor paupers from the out-relief lists to the pension authority, but this led at once to a marked increase in out-relief to those under seventy. The Local Government Board call attention to this in their half-yearly return for 1st January 1911, and it is strongly corroborated by a recent return from the Lambeth Union, showing that there were 200 more outdoor poor under seventy than at the corresponding period of the previous year. It may be added that almost all recent returns show a marked increase in outdoor relief to those under seventy. In other words, the places of those who have been transferred to the pension authority are being gradually filled by younger people. This is not at all to be wondered at. Formerly, the older people were given preference in out-relief, which is a charge upon the rates, and the Guardians had the fear of the ratepayers before their eyes, so far as younger people were concerned. Now the older people have been transferred to the imperial taxation, and they can safely put the younger ones on the list without serious increase of local charges. But, in addition to this, the fact that an old age pension is due in a year or two is now used as an irresistible argument for giving outdoor relief in the interim. It will be remembered that the argument used when the Old Age Pensions Act was passed, was that the prospect of a pension at a certain age would be a strong inducement to people to keep off the rates up to that time; but,
