asked the President of the Local Government Board if he can give the average cost of residence of paupers in normal times and at the present time, and the average cost of assistance in cash value given in each of the years 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917?

The estimated average cost per head of the paupers of all classes, in England Wales, and of indoor and outdoor paupers separately, for the year ended on the 31st March, 1914, was as follows:

	£	s.	d.
Paupers of all classes	20	2	6¾
Indoor paupers	34	9	4¾
Outdoor paupers	7	17	8

These estimates were arrived at by dividing the expenditure in each class of relief by the mean number of paupers relieved on the 1st July, 1913, and the 1st January, 1914. No general statistics are available for making a comparison of the same items of cost in recent years.

asked the President of the Local Government Board how many paupers there are over seventy years of age; how many of them have become paupers since the beginning of the War; and if he can give, separately, the number of male and female paupers over seventy years of age in each of the years 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917, and how many of them were in receipt of old age pensions before becoming paupers?

The numbers of paupers over seventy years of age in England and Wales at the under-mentioned dates (including casuals, but excluding lunatics in asylums, etc.) were as follow:

—	Men.	Women.	Total.
On 1st Jan., 1914	31,547	25,501	57,048
On 1st Jan., 1915	31,080	24,573	55,653
On 1st Jan., 1916	29,925	24,614	54,539
On 30th Dec., 1916	27,966	23,909	51,935

The returns obtained by the Department from the several Poor Law Unions as to aged pauperism do not include the further particulars asked for in the question.