THE SLUM MENACE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14098, 18 July 1911, Page 4

THE SLUM MENACE.

SMALL DASGfcR IN CHURCHREASSURING" REPORTS. Yesterday morning tho Mayor, Dr. Finch (District Health Officer), and Messrs B. Throp and A. Batten (municipal inspectors), mado a tour of the city, visiting a number of old and dilapidated buildings. The Mayor, when seen afterwards by a "Press" reporter, said that he would prefer not to make any statement until the inspection had been completed. Probably on Thursday next ho would havo something to say, for by that time practically alt tbo buildings of the class to which they were paying attention would have been visited. The citizens, however, he added, could rest assured that there was no need for fear that slum areas were in existence, or for fright lest disease should come forth from these old buildings.

Df. Finch was equally uncommunicative, i Ho would say no more than that some twenty places had been visited, amongst them being one block accommodating about a dozen families. Certainly he had seen no slums, as be understood them, neither had he seen any 6tate of affairs that could be described as shameful, or in any way startling- Tho local conditions- were very much better than those prevailing in any of tho three other centre-s. The citizens need have no fear of slum areas springing up, for the building by-law of the City Council provided excellent safeguards. With the idea of getting further information on tho subject tho reporter continued his enquiries. On the whole, his investigations were satisfactory, as he received many assurances that there were no slum areas in the city, and had it made clear to him that it was improbable that any would bo developed 'in the future. Members of the detective force, whos. duties take them into all parts of the town, laughed at the idea of there being any slum quarter in Christchurch. Here and there there were or had been old and dilapidated house!? —but in each case these had been individual buildings. There were no street* of rookeries; the city sanitary inspectors attended to such matters, and any place that was in disrepair either had to be fixed up or had to come down. .Turning to the human side of slums, their report was equally reassuring. Members of the undesirable class, of course, always had a tendency to congregate. The police attended to them, and they were not given much chance to gain any neighbourhood a bad name. So far as they knew, and it was their duty to know, there was no locality in the city given up either to very poor people, or to people who were undesirable as citizens. A land salesman of many years' experience gave some account of the class of houses that he supposed were being inspected. Situated hero and there in the city, he said, were old houses of three or four rooms;, having no conveniences, without evoii a copper, which were let at rentals of from 5s to 7s 6d per week. They would be weatherproof, but that would be all that could be said in their favour The people who took these places were the very poor. It might seem strange, but these were usually "good marks," and had their rent money ready on the day. If they got a fortnight behind there would be an excuse, usually sickness, and they would endeavour to make it up. The question of the formation of slum areas was not, in his opinion, one that was likely to worry Christchurch. Apart altogether from the attention,

and it was both .tegular and conscientious, of the municipal inspectors, tho economic aspect was against it.-..' The hovel, and the house of the sort that let at 5s or so per week, did not pay when it was remembered that -a quarter acre of land closo to the city was worth from £330 to £450.. In one street vhich ho named, land occupied by -> house that brought in 7s Gd per week was worth, roughly, £l_-,per foot of frontage. It would be seen that the landlord could use tl» land more profitably. The people who liad lived on this land, and in similar places, would have to move further out, and" the building by-law would make sure that the places that would be prepared for them were fit and proper dwellings. The "slum" was a mo3t unreal bogey in' the case of Christchurch. A second land agent, a man with wide experience of all classes of property, said Christchurch had no slums now it had not tho rights-of-way, few_ of the narrow streots and congested city blocks that the other centres liad, making for slum.? —and because land was available cheaply in the suburbs, and the people had a tendency to go further out, with the tramways, there need bo no fear that the slum would come.

Mr W- H. Hagger, officer in charge of the local Branch of the Departmelß of Labour, told the reporter tliat he had never heard a complaint from a worker that a dilapidated place was the only house that no could obtain, and did not believe that there would be any ground for such a complaint if it ■were made. The worker was better off, co for as housing went, in Christchurch than in any cf tho other centres. Hero there was less probability of a slum, than in, say, Auckland, and he would be surprised to hear that any slum area was in existence in the citV.