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Oxford Observer, Volume XX, Issue 1, 14 December 1889, Page 4

, The Hospital and • Charitable Aid Boai'd evidently starts oil its new yeai of life with mingled , feeHnjg's, , .Some of its members Say openly -that. iJfcie. annual report does not offer much, mat- 1 erial for congratulation. We are dis- ■ posed to agree with this, trank ex-« pression of opinion, more especially when we come to analyse the * account of the way in which outdoor relief has been distributed. But We dq not pro> pose to enter into statistics, partly because more than one newspaper has already devoted itself to - this , task; ; but chiefly for the rgas_on that We think the Board has done its hesf "to solve insoluble problems in the matter 01, poor relief. It is easy to abuse this or any other corporate body ; but it is less easy to remember that the , gentlemen 'yfh.6 give their time and ability to unpaid public work have no object to serve in administering the affairs qf the Board badly. They are hampered in mafly directions, and the least compliment that the public can pay to them is to acoept. their efforts as honestly directed to meet the difficulties of the. position, even though the Act under which they are appointed may be defective in its framing and objectionable iu its principle* ; There is, however, one trifling point which may : receive .attention on our part without the exhibition of any discourtesy. More than once >we have noticed, and we observed more particularly at the recent annual meeting, while the Orphanage was the subject of discussion, that there is "a tendency on the. part of the members .as a whole; to abdicate some of their functions in favor of Committees. Practically* the whole Board is told off into Committees to attend to this and : that . Special department. But we take' it that 1 this subdivision of labor is merely designed tq save time by avoidwg the discussion of details on Board days, it is not intended to elevate the decisions of these several Gommittees into the position qf Medo-Persic laws which may neither be altered nor discussed* /The action of a Committee can be, i: in its nature, only temporary} for it need not neees-. sarily be endorsed by the whole Board at a subsequent : n|eeting. r But one speaker at the last meeting, of ;the£.oar4

committed himself to the opinion that "the Board could not go behind the decision of the Committee," or words to that effect. This is surely a fallacious viev. The Board as a whole is the responsible agent in any administration of Hospital and Charitable Aid affairs ; and, howerer desirable it may be to obtain the advice of experts in the different branches of its work* the public look to the Boai'd to retaingrasp of its rightful functions as the supreme authority. We hope we shall not hear too much about the deference due to the opinion of any smaller body> which has in fact iid legal status under the Act.