MODEL COTTAGES.

Press, Volume III, Issue 335, 26 November 1863, Page 2

MODEL COTTAGES.

It is with great pleasure that we refer to an advertisement which appears in our paper thie day with regard to the subject of this article. We are cure it is high time that steps were taken in this direction, and are constantly hearing complaints of the difficulty which labouring men find in procuring decent dwelling houses. We are our seh-es labouring men, and find difficulty enough in housing ourselves to our satisfaction; we are sure that the amount of difficulty experienced by the so-called working classes is fully or more than proportionate, and that it is a crying evil which ought to be attended to by all who are interested in the general welfare of the community. We are informed that the promoter! of this scheme entirely discard any intention of adopting a falsely pbilanthropical basis: they are aware that this course of procedure would both be an insult to those for whose benefit it is intended, and that it would also most likely defeat the success of the whole plan. If there is one thing which is becoming more generally acknowledged than another among the student* of social science, it is the far greater good that is done by a wise investment of a remunerative character than by a Quixotic attempt to rush at an evil with the feeble and uncertain weapon , of " charitable" subscriptions. Such attempts almost invariably end in disappointment to the donors and demoralisation to the recipients of the bounty. We admit exceptions, but they are all based upou one principle, and upon one- only : the rule stands thus—never to do anything for another without receiving an equivalent, unless

tliat other is reasonably (in the most rigid sense) unable both to do the thing for himself, and also to render the equivalent.

Working men here are reasonably able to pay for good dwellings if good dwellings can be provided for them, and we should be only insulting them if we were to insinuate that they are unwilling to do so ; we learn, therefore, with sincere pleasure that the promoters of this scheme intend that the cottages built should return the current rate of interest upon the money that is expended upon them, and that their aim is to improve the plans and to increase the number of dwelling houses for laboring men without being in any way misled into the pleasing but delusive regions of so called philanthropy.

It is hardly ever wise to give money away: but to invest that shall repay current rates of interest upon schemes that have the general welfare in view is an action of great value to the state, and to all those whom it may contain. We shall learn more of the present subject after the meeting on Friday, and shall not fail to keep our readers an comrant with its development

and progress.