SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 51, 28 August 1913, Page 7

SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS

OVERCROWDING IN SYDNEY. CORRUPTING INFLUENCES OF J STREET LIFE. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright.) SYDNEY, 27th August. The report by Professor Irvine (of the Chair of Economics, at Sydney University, and some time member of the Public Service Board), on the question On the housing of workers, has been i tabled ih the State Assembly. It contains damning evidence of overcrowding, and the resultant unhealthy conditions at Waterloo, Surrey Hills, Redfern, and other portions of the city. The report mentions that one house was occupied by Beverr^amllies. In several houses there was only one room, where all the household duties were performed. Children from such crowded areas were driven to frequent the streets, and, though these were healthier than the crowded hdUseS, the corrupting influences of street life needed no comment. Referring to the badly lighted lanes, the report says that both juvenile and adult immoralities are said to be practised in these places with little or no check. ' UNABLE TO PAY INCREASED RENTS. bush"huts. some more recommendations. (Received August 28, 9.25 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Professor Irvine's report mentions thai many families are unable to pay increased tents, and are driven to squat in bush huts improvised out of old tins, packing cases, and sacking. He recommends a genera) housing and Town-planning Act on the English lines, and provision of rural villages for city workers, the State to retain general control of administration. Further recommendations include demolition and treatment of slum areas, insistence on a high standard of sanitation, the lighting and repair of" congested areas, rehousing displaced population, provision of parks and play grounds, loans to encourage Co-partnership building, and housing Bchemeß, encouragement of decentralisation and the formation of new centres on garden city lines, and organisation of , household services on a common basis.