Saga - 1978, Blaðsíða 155

MILLIÞINGANEFNDIN í FÁTÆKRAMÁLUM
149
the individual counties concerning the execution of certain articles
in the regulation of 1834 as well as soliciting suggestions conceming
legislative changes.
The poor law bill prepared by the Commission (chapter XII) did
not introduce any drastic changes in Icelandic poor law policy. The
Jnajority of the Commission suggested that the time which a person
had to live within the jurisdiction of a local government (hreppur)
in order to obtain poor relief from that hreppur should be shortened
from 10 years to 2 in order to spread the costs involved more evenly
between the individual local governments. This was regarded by
Jnany M.P.’s as the most important feature of the bill but it was
defeated in the Althing and the 10 years stipulation remained in
force until 1923. However, the bill was much more specific on cer-
tain points than the older law had been, as for instance in all matt-
ers concerning the treatment of paupers. It was also more humanit-
arian in nature and pointed the way to social welfare legislation on
the European model. As well as preparing this bill, the Commission
also prepared a bill concerning the local governments and a bill call-
ing for the foundation of a mental hospital.
The report of the Commission is a very interesting one. It de-
scribes the development of legislation concerning the poor in Ice-
land as well as abroad, and includes an account of the Commission’s
mvestigation into the sta.te and position of the paupers. This is dealt
with in chapters VII—XI of this paper, where a comparison is
drawn between the number and situation of the paupers in the years
1871 and 1901.
Chapter VII deals with the number of paupers. This had re-
niained relatively stable during the first half of the 19th century.
After 1855 however the number of paupers rose sharply and was
at its highest in the 19th century in 1871 when those who actually
J'eceived poor relief amounted to 7,3% of the population. The numb-
er of those who benefited from poor relief was much higher, since
the records do not take into account the wives and children of regi-
stered paupers. The number of paupers decreased considerably dur-
lrJg the next 30 years. In 1901 paupers amounted to 3% of the
Population, but 7,8% of the population benefited from poor relief.
There seem to be three main reasons for this development. Firstly
the period 1870—80 was a relatively favourable one for agriculture
and fishing and the number of paupers fell accordingly. Their num-
ber rose again however during the hardships of 1883—1889, but
favourable conditions during the 1890s caused their number to fall
again. Secondly the growth of the fishing industry in towns and
villages created employment for a large number of people who