Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1862

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POOR RELIEF (IRELAND) ACT 1862

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

An Act to amend the Laws in force for the Relief of the destitute Poor in Ireland, and to continue the Powers of the Commissioners.[¹] [7th August 1862.]

[Preamble.]

[S. 1 rep. 39 & 40 Vict. c. 50. s. 3.]

Relief of persons occupyingmore than a quarter of an acre.

2. [Recital and repeal of 10 & 11 Vict. c. 31. s. 10.] Any person who shall be in occupation of any land of greater extent than a quarter of a statute acre, and who shall be considered by the board of guardians to require relief, shall be relieved by them in the workhouse, and not otherwise.

Power to guardians to admit poor persons requiring medical or surgical aid into the infirmary of the workhouse.

3. [Recital.] It shall be lawful for such guardians to admit into the infirmary of the workhouse any poor persons requiring medical or surgical aid in hospital, and to provide for their treatment and maintenance therein, charging the expense thereof on the electoral division or union at large, as the case may be, according to such person’s chargeability by residence under the laws which are or shall be in force for the relief of the destitute poor in Ireland: Provided, that no person admitted to the workhouse for medical or surgical treatment in hospital shall be required by the guardians to be accompanied by any member of his or her family as a condition of such person’s admission into the workhouse.

Poor persons of sufficient ability to pay the cost of their maintenance in the infirmary, &c. required to repay the same.

4. Every poor person who shall be so admitted into the infirmary of the workhouse in pursuance of the authority in that behalf which is herein-before given, and every poor person who shall hereafter be admitted into any building provided by the guardians of any union for a fever hospital, or into any part of the workhouse appropriated as a fever hospital, who shall nevertheless be considered by the guardians to be of sufficient ability to pay the cost of his or her maintenance while in hospital, or some portion of such cost, shall be required to repay such proportion thereof as the guardians shall determine; provided, that such proportion shall in no case exceed the average of the general cost of maintenance, medical and surgical treatment in such hospital or infirmary; and all such sums shall be recoverable from such poor persons, or from those liable by law to maintain them, by the same ways and means as the cost of relief given by way of loan is recoverable under the Acts in force for the relief of the destitute poor in Ireland; and all such sums, or any part thereof which shall be recovered, shall be lodged with the treasurer of the union, to the credit of the electoral division chargeable for the maintenance of such poor person, or to the credit of the union, as the case may be: Provided also, that for the purpose of the recovery of the cost of maintenance as aforesaid, every master or mistress shall be deemed liable to maintain his or her domestic servant so long as the service shall continue, and also his or her apprentice residing under his or her roof.

Admission of constabulary of patients.

5. On the requisition of any inspector or sub-inspector of constabulary, or head constable in charge of a station, it shall be lawful for the board of guardians to admit into the workhouse infirmary or fever hospital any constable or sub-constable of the said force on service within the union, who shall be suffering from fever or other disease or bodily injury requiring treatment in hospital; and every such constable or sub-constable shall contribute the full average cost of daily maintenance and establishment charges, medical and surgical treatment in such hospital for the whole term of his continuance therein; and the amount of such cost may be recovered by the guardians of the union by the same ways and means as the cost of relief given by way of loan is recoverable under the Acts in force for the relief of the destitute poor in Ireland.

Poor persons claiming to pay cost of their maintenance, &c. to be separately registered and not to be disfranchised.

6. Every poor person admitted into the fever hospital or infirmary of a workhouse who shall on admission claim to repay the entire cost of his or her maintenance therein, according to the full average cost thereof, as herein-before stated, and every poor person admitted into such fever hospital or infirmary on whose behalf the person liable by law to maintain such poor person shall claim to repay the entire cost of such maintenance therein as aforesaid, and every constable or sub-constable so admitted, shall be entered in a separate register from that in which the other persons admitted into the workhouse are registered; and the person so relieved and the person so claiming shall not, after payment of the said charges of maintenance, be subject to any disfranchisement or disability as persons having received relief from the poor rates; and such register shall at all reasonable times be open for the inspection of those persons who shall desire to examine or take extracts from it, without any charge for such inspection or extracts; and a copy of such register, or of any part of it, signed by the clerk of the union, and under the seal of the board of guardians, shall be legal evidence of the facts stated in such copy in any court of record, without proof of the signature of the clerk, or of the affixing of such seal.

Guardians may send inmates of workhouse to a hospital or infirmary.

7. It shall be lawful for the guardians of any union in cases requiring special treatment to send any inmate or inmates of the workhouse of such union requiring medical or surgical treatment to any hospital or infirmary, the governor, governors, or managers of which shall be willing and able to receive such inmate or inmates, and to pay to the governor, governors, or managers of such hospital or infirmary, out of the rates of the union or electoral division, as the case may be, the cost of the maintenance and treatment in such hospital or infirmary of the persons so sent as aforesaid; and the guardians may also pay out of the rates of the union the cost of the conveyance of such persons from the workhouse of the union to such hospital or infirmary, and also the cost of the conveyance of such persons, when discharged from such hospital or infirmary, to the said workhouse; and the entire cost of such maintenance, treatment, and conveyance as aforesaid shall be deemed part of the cost of maintenance and treatment of such inmate or inmates in the workhouse of such union.

Guardians to have same authority as parents in cases of orphans under 15 years of age relieved in a workhouse.

8. Every child under the age of fifteen years, without a parent, relieved in a workhouse, shall be subject to the authority of the board of guardians in the same manner as such child would be subject to the authority of its parents or parent, if living together with such parents or parent, excepting as regards the religious denomination of such child; and no such child shall be discharged from the workhouse otherwise than by the order of the board of guardians; but nothing herein shall authorize the detention of any child without a parent, if any relative of such child, who in the opinion of the board of guardians shall be a fit person to be intrusted with such child, and of sufficient ability to maintain such child, shall claim its discharge from the workhouse for the purpose of its being maintained out of the workhouse otherwise than at the charge of the poor rates.

[S. 9 rep. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 25. s. 1. S. 10 rep. 26 & 27 Vict. c. 21. s. 1.]

1 & 2 Vict. c. 56. s. 49.

Religious education of children the religion of whose parents is not known.

11. And whereas by the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838, it is provided, that no order of the Commissioners nor any byelaw shall authorize the education of any child in a workhouse in any religious creed other than that professed by the parents or parent of the child, and to which such parents or parent shall object, and in the case of an orphan to which the guardian or guardians, godfather or godmother, shall object; but no such provision is made for the case of a child not being an orphan, the religion of whose parents or parent is unknown: Be it enacted, that in every such last-mentioned case the guardian or guardians, god-father or godmother of the child, shall have the like power to object as the parents or parent of a child would have if living, or as the guardian or guardians, godfather or godmother, would have in the case of an orphan.

Rating of unoccupied buildings.

12. [Recital.] The guardians shall, in making every rate for the relief of the destitute poor, specify on the face thereof the period for the service of which the rate is estimated to provide; and when any building liable to assessment under the provisions of the Acts for the relief of the destitute poor in Ireland is unoccupied at the time of making any such rate on the electoral division in which such building shall be situate, the board of guardians shall in every such case include such building in the said rate, describing it in the column appropriated to the name of the occupier or immediate lessor, as the case may be, as “empty”; and such building shall be deemed to be rated to the relief of the poor as fully and effectually as if it had been occupied at the time of the rate made, and the name of the occupier or immediate lessor inserted in the said rate: Provided always, that if such building shall continue to be unoccupied during the whole of the period for which the rate was estimated as aforesaid, the rate so made on the said building shall not be recoverable: Provided also, that if after the making of the said rate, and before the expiration of the period for which the rate was so estimated as aforesaid, any person or persons shall occupy such building for any portion of such period, the board of guardians shall be entitled to recover from the occupier or the immediate lessor, if he be liable to pay the same, a portion only of the said rate proportioned to the time during which the said building shall have been so occupied; and the same shall be recovered from the occupier or immediate lessor, as the case may be, in the same manner as if he had been originally rated for such building, or, in default of payment by such occupier, from the subsequent occupier of the premises.

Guardians may appoint collectors of poor rates.

13. . . . it shall and may be lawful for the guardians of any union, subject to the approval of the Commissioners, to appoint from time to time such and so many persons as they may deem expedient to collect and levy the rates so made on the several electoral divisions.

Saving as to district comprised in 12 & 13 Vict. c. 91.

14. Nothing herein-before contained regarding the rating of premises or the collection of rates shall apply to premises situate within the district for the collection of poor rates as defined by the Act passed in the session held in the twelfth and thirteenth years of the reign of Her Majesty, intituled “An Act to provide “for the collection of rates in the City of Dublin.”

Non-occupying ratepayers to give statement of name, &c. and full description of the property in respect of which they claim to vote, and of their interest therein.

15. No ratepayer shall be entitled to vote in the election of guardians, either in person or by proxy, in respect of any property not in his actual occupation, or to give any vote in addition to the vote or votes to which he would be entitled as an occupier paying rent equal to the net annual value of the property in his actual occupation, unless he or his proxy shall, one month at the least previous to the day on which he shall claim to vote, have given to the guardians, or to some person acting as returning officer, a statement in writing of the name and address of such ratepayer, and the description and local situation of the property in respect of which he claims to vote, specifying, in cities, towns, and their suburbs having streets and other roadways, the name of the street or roadway, and the number of the house or tenement, if any, and the parish in which the property is situate, and in other places the barony, parish, and townland, so that the property may be ascertained and identified with reasonable certainty, together with the nature of the interest of the ratepayer therein, and its net annual value over and above all rents payable by him, and the amount of rent payable to him, and the names of the tenants or occupiers by whom poor rates have been deducted from such rent; and no such proxy shall be entitled to claim to vote unless such proxy shall have given to the guardians, or some person acting as returning officer, one month at the least previous to the day on which he shall claim to vote, the original or an attested copy of the writing appointing such proxy; and every such claim to vote, whether by the ratepayer or his proxy, shall be executed in the presence of a justice of the peace.

Limitation as to non-occupying ratepayers, &c. and proxies.

16. No claim of a ratepayer to vote in the election of guardians, either in person or by proxy, in respect of any property not in his actual occupation, or to give a vote or votes in addition to the vote or votes to which he would be entitled as an occupier paying rent equal to the net annual value of the property in his occupation, shall continue in force beyond the period of five years from the date on which he or his proxy shall have given such statement as aforesaid: Provided, that every appointment of a proxy may be revoked at any time: Provided also, that no person shall be entitled to vote as proxy for more than twenty owners of property in any one electoral division or ward, unless he be a steward, bailiff, land agent, or collector of rents for the owners of property for whom he may be appointed to vote.

Voting of owners or immediate lessors rated under recited provisions.

6 & 7 Vict. c. 92. ss. 1, 4. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 91. s. 63. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 104. s. 10.

17. And whereas doubts have been entertained whether owners or immediate lessors of property who are rated under the provisions of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1843, sections one and four, or under the provisions of the Act of the twelfth and thirteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter ninety one, section sixty-three, or under the provisions of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1849, section ten, are entitled to vote as ratepayers in respect of property for which they are so rated: Be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for owners or immediate lessors who are so rated as aforesaid to vote, in person or by proxy, in the election of guardians in respect of the property or rent for which they are so rated, in the same manner as occupiers paying no rent or paying rent less than the net annual value of the rateable property, as the case may be; provided, that every such owner or immediate lessor or his proxy shall have lodged a statement in the manner herein-before provided with reference to persons claiming to vote in respect of property not in their actual occupation.

No person to vote for a greater amount of rent than the rateable value of the property.

18. No person receiving rent shall be entitled to vote as aforesaid in respect thereof for any greater amount of rent than the annual value of the property out of which such claim arises, according to the valuation of the same in the survey or valuation of rateable hereditaments for the time being in force in the union.

Occupiers, &c. not to vote unless all rates six months due have been paid.

6 & 7 Vict. c. 92. ss. 1, 4. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 91. s. 63. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 104. s. 10.

19. [Recital of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 56. s. 85.] No occupier rated to the poor rate shall be entitled to vote in that capacity unless he shall have paid all the poor rates previously made and assessed upon him, except such as shall have been made or become due within six calendar months immediately preceding such voting; and no owner or immediate lessor who is rated under the provisions of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1843, sections one and four, or the Act of the twelfth and thirteenth years of her Majesty, chapter ninety-one, section sixty-three, or the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1849, section ten, and this Act, shall be entitled to vote in respect of the property for which he is so rated, unless he shall have paid all the rates made and assessed on him in respect of such property, except such as shall have been made or become due within six calendar months immediately preceding such voting.

Guardian elected for two or more divisions to notify for which he will act, &c.

20. In the event of any one person being elected a guardian by the ratepayers of two or more electoral divisions, electoral districts, or wards, as the case may be, he shall forthwith notify to the returning officer for which of such electoral divisions, electoral districts, or wards, as the case may be, he will choose to act as guardian, which notification shall be transmitted to the Commissioners by the returning officer of such union; and the Commissioners shall thereupon take order for a further election of guardian in the other of such divisions, districts, or wards, as the case may be.

Solicitors who are members of boards of guardians not to act for or against such boards.

21. No solicitor who is a member of any board of guardians shall act professionally as solicitor either for or against the board of guardians of which he is a member; and every solicitor so acting shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, with full costs of suit, to any person who shall sue for the same by action in any of Her Majesty’s Courts of Record in Dublin.

Paid officers, &c. incapable of serving as guardians.

22. No paid officer engaged in the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor, or under the Act for the better distribution, support, and management of medical charities in Ireland, nor any person who, having been such paid officer, shall have been dismissed within five years previously from such office, shall be capable of serving as a guardian; and no person receiving any fixed salary or emolument from the poor rates in any union shall be capable of serving as a guardian in such union.

Burial of persons dying or found dead, whose family are unknown, &c.

23. And whereas no legal provision exists for the burial of the bodies of unknown persons who have been drowned and cast ashore in Ireland, or who have otherwise perished and been found dead: Be it enacted, that the guardians of each union in Ireland shall provide for the burial of the dead body of every such person dying or found dead within such union whose family or connexions shall not be known, and whose body shall not be claimed by any person for the purpose of burial, and shall charge the expenses of such burial on the poor rates of the union: Provided, that the relieving officer of the union, with the sanction of the guardian or one of the guardians of the electoral division in which such person shall be found dead, shall proceed without delay in the burial of such dead body, giving notice to the guardians of his proceedings therein, and of the expenses incurred by him, as soon thereafter as may be practicable in each case; such expense in each case not to exceed seven shillings and sixpence.

Where no new guardians nominated, old guardians to remain in office.

24. When, at the expiration of the year of office of the guardians of the poor, no nomination of a guardian or guardians for any electoral division shall have been made, the guardian or guardians of any such electoral division shall remain in office for the ensuing year, and have power to exercise all the functions of guardians of the poor, as if duly re-elected.

After division of electoral divisions into wards, rate-payers under the last rate may vote for guardians. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 56.

2 & 3 Vict. c. 1. s. 2.

25. Whereas under provisions of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1839, the Commissioners are empowered to constitute certain cities, boroughs, and towns, electoral divisions into wards for the election of guardians: Be it enacted, that when the Commissioners shall have divided any electoral division into wards as aforesaid, every ratepayer who, under the last rate made in any union, shall have paid or contributed, or be liable to pay or contribute, rate in respect of property in any ward, shall have a vote or votes for the election of guardians in such ward according to the scale of votes provided by the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838.

[S. 26 rep. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 66. (S.L.R.)]

[¹ Short title, “The Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1862.” See 55 & 56 Vict. c. 10.]