DUNEDIN SLUMS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17812, 11 July 1923, Page 2

DUNEDIN SLUMS.

deplorable conditions. (SPECI&.L TO "THE PRESS.") DUNEDIN, July 10. The -Mayor of Dunedin (Mr Tapley) and Dr. Hercus went round certain Dunedin slum areas this morning, accompanied by Dr. McKibbin (Health Officer) and Dr. Crawshaw (of Kaiapoi). After the tour the Mayor gave a reporter some particulars as to the inspection. His Worship said:— They showed me various areas that are certainly most unsatisfactory, and tnat should not exist in our fair city. Manv of the areas that I was shown are m alleyways off main streets. The buildings are dilapidated, their appearance is squalid, and these factors naturally give the occupants an putlook on lif3 which is anything but cheerful. The spaces on which these buildings stand are very small and congested, ajid at this time of the year are necessarily damp and unhealthy. On going into these houses one point that struck me forcibly was the fact that the windows appear to be never opened. One house that we went into showed deplorable conditions. A man and his wife and five children and a young woman, who was taken to the Hospital this morning suffering from influenza, occupied this house of three rooms, for which the rent was 10s a week. The sick woman (who has since died) had been sleeping in a bed whilst' she had influenza, with two small children at the foot of her bed. and another in a box by its side, wnilst the husband and wife and the two other children occupied another poky room. I found that the rentals in these slum areas run from 8s to 10s a week. The tenants are, of course, working people. The lowness of the rent is no doubt the cause that sends them into such places, so that thoy may have money for food. For more sanitary dwellings, which are difficult, to procure, £l a week is asked, and that is out of the question with small wage-earners. I am so much impressed with the gravity of the position that it is my intention to invito the whole City Council to accompany the officers of the Health Department and myself in a visit to these slums of ours. 1 want our Councillors to see for the conditions that exist,, and 1 desire to bring about a serious consideration of the question as to whether the removing of this menace is the duty of the Corporation and other local bodies, or the duty of th© Government. It is very urgent that something should be done, and done at once, to condemn these wretched shanties and provide decent dwellings with bright and sanitary surroundings for the poorer people to live in. My heart ached when I saw the miserable places in which children are being brought up. The Government, in its recent/Budget, has announced' that it is proposed to advance for workers' dwellings up to 95 per cent, pf their cost at the attractive interest rate of 4J- per cent., but many of these people have not got a £6 note to deposit, so as to take advantage of this ! opportunity, and my view is that the Government should adivunce the money on similar terms to the local bodies, and allow them to do the work unless the Government is itself prepared to do it. The main thing is to get something done immediately. The trouble about the local bodies doing the work is that they would have to borrow for it, and correspondingly increase the rates, and that would affect the working man who has been thrifty, an'd Is in possession of his own house, but still has enough to do to make en3s meet. It seems to me, therefore, that it is a matter ?»r the Government to tackle, because many of the cases that have to be provided for have come about through want of thrift, and the GoveJ iment has reaped revenue from th© f riftless. i Another member of the party remarked that he recently saw the slums ■n Auckland, and was satisfied that I though Dunedin's slums are bad, Auckland's are worse.