CHILDREN IN FLATS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 83, 8 April 1938, Page 8

CHILDREN IN FLATS

FAR FROM DESIRABLE

CITY ENGINEER'S COMMENT

Most of the unsatisfactory conditions with regard to the housing of children under ten years of age (infants under one year were not accounted in the calculation of overcrowding) exist in apartment houses, the City Engineer commented, and even under the "sharing conveniences standard," the figure of 775 is high. "When it is considered that children are reckoned as half persons utjder this standard it is:obvious that the conditions under which they are-being reared'is far from desirable," said Mr. "Luke. "The differene in the, percentages of children in private dwellings arid apartment units is not as' great as might be expected, and? is a> cause: for reflection.".

The detail .sheets show that for the whole of Wellington 11,002 children' are satisfactorily housed and 545 unsatisfactorily housed in. private dwellings, 1394 satisfactorily, and 775 unsatisfactorily housed (sharing' conveniences standard, but .836 satisfactorily and; 1333 unsatisfactorily on "separate convenience ■ standard") in apartment houses; 209? satisfactorily and 113 unsatisfactorily in boarding houses. It is again-in apartments in the city proper that '■■ conditions are least satisfactory, t)n the standard of a separate convenience for each family only 419 children were considered to be properly housed in such premises and 1077 improperly housed.

The percentage of children for the whole of Wellington is 12.85. For the' city proper the percentage is 8.96, increasing to 14.2 for the inner suburbs and 19.4 in the outer suburbs.