TILLAGE OF SHACKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19974, 16 June 1928, Page 14

TILLAGE OF SHACKS.

INSANITARY ESSEX HOMES. BOXES AND OLD CAR BODIES. GUN POINTED AT INSPECTOR. The British Ministry of Health recently asked the Ongar Rural Council for observations on the sanitary condition of Pear Tree Green, an Essex village of shacks, made from sugar cases, orange boxes and old motor-car bodies, which has arisen in the parish oE Doddinghurst. The rise of Pear Tree Green had been a source of anxiety to the late council for three years. The village has been admitted to be an eyesore to the countryside, but its people have proved so ingenious that every effort to cut short its growth has failed. The Ministry's request for " observations " followed the receipt of a letter from Mr. W. Parrish, a resident of Pear Tree Green, in which he stated that numbers of families were crowded in small wooden houses with inadequate sleeping and sanitary accommodation, and alleged that many of the huts had no foundation, that many of the people relied upon duck ponds for drinking water, that tuberculosis was prevalent and that there was grave risk of an outbreak of infectious disease. A member o7 the council admitted that the allegations were true, and added: " The medical officer and the sanitary inspector have condemned the huts, but owing to a difference of opinion among a sub-committee which inspected the huts nothing has been done." There were rows of shanties, many of. them no more than Bft. long and 6ft. wide, and yet housing whole families. There were 40 or more in all, and only here and there was a brick-built bungalow or a hut of lath and plaster. "I complained of the conditions chiefly for the sake of my child," Mr. Parrish said to a newspaper correspondent. "I feel that if these shacks are allowed to be used there will be a terrible outbreak of disease. It is only a month or two since the school had to be closed to stop a spread of infection, and things may get worse at any time. I was one of the first to come here, and I built a bungalow to plans approved by the council. Few of these huts have been approved, and I think I have a just grievance, too, on the ground that the value of my property is being allowed to depreciate." Mr. P. Pearse, the sanitation inspector, has had many bitter experiences of Pear Tree Green. "The people come from .East End districts of London," he said, and such disease as exists has been imported from there. The council is hampered because most of the owners declare that the huts are temporary structures, and the council's out-of-date by-laws will not allow it to deal with the trouble effectively. There is also the problem of finding accommodation for ejected families. "When I try to enforce the law I am generally met with threats, and have even had a gun pointed at me. The general feeling of the council, I believe, is one of relief that this state of affairs has come to the knowledge of the Ministry." Land is cheap in Pear Tree Green. An acre may be bought, it was stated, for £25.