SOCIAL MENACE OF SLUM AREAS

NZ Truth, Issue 1272, 17 April 1930, Page 1

SOCIAL MENACE OF SLUM AREAS

REDUCED BY POVERTY TO HOVELS i .■'.'.. > _ • ■ Pitiable Plight of Victims of Unemployment Forced To Live In Squalor THE AUTHORITIES^MUST TAKE ACTION (From "N.Z. Truth's " Special Dunedin Representative)

With the dark cloud of unemployment hanging low and ominous over every town and city m the Dominion, a bitter variation has found its way into an old adage: "Half the world never knows how the other half lives." In Dunedin, no less than m any of the other big centres, the truth of the adage is apparent. It is not Ijo be found on the surface so much as down the narrow by-roads and alley-ways, and out to the fringes of the city. Social and church workers, and the charitable aid authorities, are straining every nerve to keep the ugly wolf from the door of hundreds of homes. , • How some of the families "Truth" interviewed exist on their meagre pittance the unfortunates themselves alone know; . ' ,

ACCORDING to the latest figures supplied by the Unemployment . . Register Committee m Dunedin city, there are now 654 unemployed, including 23 women. Of these, 402 are .married, the total number of dependants being 1147. The position, as revised by the various relief working bodies, Is worse now than It has ever been In Dunedin, arid distress among all classes of workers is rampant. . > ■■".'■■■'. Perhaps the. most" pitiable case m therich southern city/ Is, that of a young married couple with two children, aged. 2 years and 8 months respectively, who are living under bare canvas on the outDrainage Board Works two months ago. Finding it hard to make ends meet .Tyheri paying rent, he decided to take to the open spaces. . His ; new home, located on the side of the Taieri Road, consists of two 10 by 12 tents. The tent was given to him by a neighbor, and now serves the purpose of a galley, or "kitchen." The other, a new one, for which the struggling couple paid £3, is used for sleeping quarters. The parents sleep on a mattress, perched upon boxes, and the two kiddies m cots. ' Neither tent is equipped with a "fly," and the floor m each draughty compartment is just the plain cold earth. To shelter his crude home from the blasts of winter winds, the husband has erected, a brush fence around his plot; When "Truth" I called he was busy digging turf to replace, with more substantial i workmanship the sod chimney. , Another more 1 -,, or less severe case ijan be found at the other end of the town, snuggled away In en old gravel pit at Tainui. Felt the Pinch ' In this case the couple, with their] two children felt .the pinch of unemployment over 12 months ago. At that | time, finding, it , hard .to . earn . enough to keep his family, and then (have enough left to pay the landlord, the: husband hit on the idea of building a j roof over his own head. For 35/.- he purchased an old motor chassis and converted, it into a small caravan. Later, (he managed to scrape up enough to buy another old car skeleton and a sheet of canvas. He is a joiner by trade and the result of his workmanship has provided his little .household with quite a respectable means of having a home without paying rent. The man is an ex-Imperial soldier witb a long record of, active service. In ill-health after the war, he brought his family out to the Dominion, expecting to find better health and at least a means of making a living: In the past two years, however, owing a recurrence of nervous disorder, the unhappy immigrant has only secured six months' work. His intention, so he told "Truth's' representative, is to install engines m his two caravans and travel- round the country on the off-chance of obtaining work here and there to. keep him going. ' Has unemployment, it may well be asked, been responsible for what promises- to be the introduction' of "gypsy" wandering to ; New Zeland? These two cases are both 1 under the notice ..of the Charitable Aid authorities, each family having to subsist on

'the earnings of one and a-half days' work per week. Cases of Intense hardship were located by "Truth" m all parts of the city. In Albany Street, an elderly widower, with a grown-up son and daughter and a younger child, because he was behind m Ihis rent, was given notice to quit.

The whole family is suffering from consumption, and the father, ill m bed when "Truth" called, has bean out of work for 10 months. For some weeks the son obtained employment, but was put off at Christmas, sin v ce when the family has had to rely on charity. Another case which gives the public some idea of "how the other half exists," and without charity at that, "Truth" came across m King Street. The mother said that on the £2/5/per'fortnight her son earned, she managed to keep herself, her husband and four offspring, tiro of .which are still going to school. Her husband, a seaman by occupation, was on the s.s. "Manuka",, when been- able it obtain work- since. On top of everything she has to strive to keep up a weekly rental of 10/- for the pokey three-roomed house m which the family lives. . . "Position is Bad" To attempt to give the Dominion public a true word picture of the poverty and privation which is eating the heart out of the moral courage of hundreds of parents m the town would be futile. In the words of Adjutant Glover, of the Salvation Army, who is here, there and everywhere on her mission of succouring the unfortunate, the position is summed up thus: "Very, very bad. Unless something Is done quickly the position will become desperate." And, aided by the demoralising effect of prolonged, unemployment, the laxity of the local health authorities m - permitting numerous miserable tenements and ramshackle dwellings to remain within the class of "tenantable," is aiding the development of "slum" areas. It is a proud boast m Dunedin that the city harbors no slums. But if all the tumble-down and absolutely insanitary habitations m Dunedin were transferred to one area, the city would have as nice looking a slum area as, proportionately, any one of the other three main centres.; There is, (however, no need to take In the whole of Dunedin. For instance; taking a half-mile radius from the Octogan, one can drop across numerous instances of tenements which are not fit for human beings to live m. . The "plum" of the bunch, perhaps, is a line of wpoden tenements located just off King Street, which enjoys. the Imposing designation of "Avenue Terrace." In Tenements ■To say the least of this terrace of hovels, from the point of view of health and social uplift, they are a danger to the unfortunate people whom circumstances have forced to> occupy them and try to live respectably and with household cleanliness. - It Is not intended to cast a slur on thex personal habits and cleanliness of the numerous tenants now occupying the habitations mentioned. Each tenement — -there are nine m the. row— -consists, of four rooms, two of which are upstairs. A narrow, awkward stairway leads the . way to the two upstairs rooms, 'which are nothing more than attics, each having a small window on the floor level. . , In case of fire and the flames reach-

ing the stairs before the qccupants of the upstairs apartments became aware of the danger, these attics would be a veritable death-trap. Moreover, although a cement wall divides each house, if fire did break out m one place probably half the block would be demolished before anything could be done. - ■ ' \

For the. pleasure and privilege of occupying, one of these places a tenant pays up to 12/6 per week. There is no bath or wash-house. This row of houses and three others close by occupy a quarter of an acre of ground! . Across on the other side of King Street are several terraces of small, one-storey tenements. '■ ' For a three-roomed place of this description a tenant pays up 10/- or 10/6. The properties are absolutely devoid of conveniences m the way of bathing, and wash-house. In and around Maclaggan Street, are more disgracefully neglected habitations. '"^atrthe^loJ^e^d:.-6f^Hie^BtreW r weh;^ i r tioned, a woman bays 5/- per week for a two-roomed place not fit for a pig to live m. Down be-low is a semi-cellar-like appartment m which one wall is built against the earth owing to the nature of the ground the awful place is built . upon. v A3 usual, there are no conveniences,

and once again the narrow stairway i« m evidence,- one. of the two tenantable rooms being an upstairs one. In Serpentine Avenue, a married couple with, four children pay 12/6 for a three-roomed place, which is without wash-house, copper, electric light or gas. Nor was there even a gate to the back- yard entrance. Just off Maclaggan Street, m a narrow alleyway there are several other properties which should attract the attention of the authorities. , ] At one questionable looking place

"Truth" called upon, the woman of the house declared she was paying 10/---per week for three rooms, which she occupied with her husband and three children. "No conveniences" was again the cry — not even a copper, and only one water tap, which, by the way, was near the front door. In Clark Street (off Maclaggan Street), "Truth" discovered a rough-looking tenement which, although condemned, was occupied by a woman,"but it" is understood no . rent is now paid for occupancy. Similar circumstances apply to another property at the corner of Albany and Frederick .Streets, where v a family r.eri''are A qomiciie^r'fn;rfp.u r ryToprns. . Three doors down m the same Clark Street block, "Truth's" Investigator was informed by an elderly lady that she paid 7/6 per week for the tworoomed place she was occupying. In the passage -fway there were long fingers of fungus growing out from between the lining boards! Washing Copper Further afield, outside the "magic" circle described by the half-mile radius from the Octogan, m Perth Avenue, a family with three small children declared that t*teir rent was 14/6 for the three-roomed place they call home. Here, before, entering, one could see by the state of the decking of the tiny verandah that the place was nothing to boast about. Inside, the familiar sight of narrow stairs leading to one upstairs room was one of the first things to catch the eye. For washing purposes the tenant shares a copper with her neighbor, the two houses being owned by the same landlord. Surely, m instancing these few of the many dilapidated and insanitary habitations found to be existing within the city that aims so high m beauty and cleanliness, the public has a right to ask the local health authorities if nothing can be done to bring property owners to toe the line and do something to provide adequate means for tenants to supply themselves more conveniently with personal and household cleanliness. Whereas many or most of these and other premises should be condemned and pulled down, it Is obvious that people m straitened circumstances must live somewhere. But unless some move is made to provide the poorer classes with homes that, however small, are conducive to "hygienic habits, the good health of the community will always be 'fighting an uphill battle.