HOUSING THE POOR.

A cablegram announced a few days ago that the Liverpool Corporation is spending a million and a half on the rehousing of the poor, and in London the same problem is receiving anxious thought. It is extremf-ly difficult to know how.ta deal jriih. this matter and . experiments already made in this direction have not turned out as people thought and hoped; ~Still~tbe -BritishGovernment and some of the larger municipalities are bravely grapline with the problem, in spite of the cry of some of the teetotallers that licensing reform is more urgent. Mr Bitch ie, tbe Home Secretary, contends that it is better to open new and np-to date private bouses than to close public houses. During tbe past 30 years, h", said, the number of licensed houses' had bef n re duced by 20 per cent., but statistics show that the consumption of liquor per head of the population is considerably greater than it was some yearo ago. On the other hand, while the efforts of philanthropists have been increasing, and of all denominations are. banding themselves together to make an attack upon thi* prevailing vice, they have found themselves handicapped by the insanitary and over-crowded dwellings, in whicb j so many; of .our ..people have to live. 1 Wve^%nt_ m.ore.,comfost for people in their own houses, 9 said the Home Secretary, ' and for my :part -I believe that the public conscience has been now aroused to a degree never before reached on this question of the housing of the .people,. It is immensely more important tbat the housing of the poor. should be remedied than that tbe number of public bouses should be reduced. We also want more amuse ment and more recreation for tbe people; and in reform of this kind there is far -more hope than in the! reforms wbich the deputation now advocate.' j