HOUSING THE POOR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1851, 28 August 1907, Page 14

HOUSING THE POOR

CASUAL WARDS FOR THE CITY.' VIGOROUS CRITICISM BY MR LONDON. At the meeting off the Wellington Benevolent Trustees yesterday the matter oi the establishment of a casual ward in conjunction with the Ohiro Home wag Brought up by a report from the secretary, which was read in committee and will be fully considered at & special meeting on Monday next. Mr G. London said it had been stated that the duties of Trustees were simply to administer the distribution of charitable aid with due discrimination.-; Yet it seemed that this discrimination led te inquiry, and this led from stage to stage until it was difficult to discover where the responsibilities of the trustees) really ended. It was presumed that the Ohiro Home would not have been established had the Charitable Aid Board kept strictly to the performance of its functions. yet the institution had most eloquently justified the act of its founders, as to-day it stood out as one of the best the most healthful and most economically managed establishments for poor relief in the colony. Tt had, however, proved its limitations. It was a hous® for the aged poor of both sexes, and in a very limited way provided shelter and food for indigent people run down in healtn, who might be cured by suitable treatment and renewed to take part in the battle of life. THE CASUAL POOR.

There was, however, a class apart from these sections which required help—the casual poor, people drifting about the colony whose conditions appeared deplorable. This section for the most part was sent to the Salvation Army Workmen's Home, where 4d beds and Id meals were provided, the amount being charged to the Board by the army. This arrangement told only been recognised as tentative, and the time had now arrived when the Board might consider the question of taking over the complete control of the poor law administration by the establishment of. casual wards for the city. Regarding a visit paid by members of the Board to the Salvation Army Home, it was evident to him that this institution had only partially supplied the want. The bedroom for tha four-penny lodger was a dormitory 42ft iong by a width of 27ft, into which no fewer than fifty-six bunks had been crowded. The room was about 10ft high, and represented 15,120 cubic feet of air space, in which fifty-six people nightly slept. The beds were bunks, there was not an atom of privacy, and though the bed covering and dormitory were clean the conditions were deplorable and unhealthy. The air space in this chamber was equal to 237 cubic feet per head, land 27 square lcct of floor space per occupant. Authorities on Hygiene were oi opinion that 1000 cubic feet of air space per head was desirable, and though municipal government regulations did no-t make such a high standard necessary, they imposed regulations which, if enforced, made the conditions prevailing at the Salvation Army Workmen's home an offence. For workhouses in England the air space in the dormitories was 400 cubic feet per head, and m hospitals 12'JO feet, yet with an enlightened community like Wellington, the socially diseased were housed in such a manner as to canoe disease and premature death. Sleeping under the conditions he had described was sufficient to ultimately cause poi@Dn.ing by organic exhalation, asphyxia, and death, they were the most fatal cause of phthisis or destructive lung disease, and assisted in the making of a class of habitually idle people. The ward was, in spite of the desires of its founders, a place of evil not to be tolerated a moment longer than need be. It must be remembered that at fourpence a night the dormitory was worth -£6 10s per week, and there were other beds in the hotel—which were decent, clean, with ample air space, and to which no exception could be taken—which considerably supplemented this sum. H« was of opinion that the Board should at once set about providing a decent room for casuals, charging those capable of paying a suitable sum for lodging. It could be done at very little extra, expense to the Board. It was decided to deal with Mr London's suggestions when the whole question is being considered next Monday.