SLUMDOM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 129, 24 July 1911, Page 5

SLUMDOM.

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. YAK 10US SUGGESTIONS. Great interest was created in Auckland by Mr. C. C. Roadc’s lecture on the slump, of Auckland and "Wellington, and it is no exaggeration to say that at least a tiiousand people who wished to hear His lecture upon the subject could not be accommodated in utc Choral,Hall. Ml*. Rondo displayed a striking .series of pictures of, houses in’Auckland and Wellington: in varying stages of dissipation, some of them condemned premises, and an explanation was made that many of? those unlovely spots remained to make vile the prospect, for the -simple reason that the powers of health .officers and sanitary inspectors were so restricted that an owner could frequently oppose tin order of condemnation; consequently they not only remained, but were converted into factories and workshops of. sorts. The following pictures dealt with houses against rat-infested stables and houses with .back-yards which wero only a “square yard” each. Tho —Typical Instance—

was a four-roomed place against a stable wall, with an outhouse water tap to supply the domestic water, and an incubus in the shape of 9s per week rent. The lecturer knew, he 'said, of ovp' fifty homes in the city with just 'such accommodation. Then, came glides showing houses cramped up against stables and trap sheds, with pm back yaid used in common for a number .of places and no inside convenience in tiieiii, blocked out from light and air space, and in acute stages of decay. In one such house of four rooms lived a family of eight people, and live children 1 slept in a bedroom 10ft. square. ;.|jf The breadwinner earned 30s to 4os, and paid 11s (id -i-'Week rent. N&fi'Mr Readedisplayed pictures of a;; “lot” of houses which had been ciondcinncd years ago, but which, with the aid of whitewash,, had Hflanagqd t.° t( imprpss the Magistrate 'to vetb the health officer’s report. One outside water tap supplied three houses with water. Houses with kennel-like, rooms and tunnel approaches, and showing various stages of picturesque ruin, were screened,' and the lecturer stated that those wore found on his visit to be leaky, damp, and many of them without drainage. In the —Cellar of One Dwelling—

he had found six people living—father, mother, three children, and a young gill hoarder. They all lived in the one room, which was in a filthy condition. Whilst he was making inquiries on the 1 subject the family disappeared, and the cellar had since remained unoccupied. There were frequent instances of two families living in the one insanitary house because of high rents. Among the pictures shown was one of a block of fourteen houses and a shop, all sharing one hack yard (50ft by 60ft), one washhouse, and one outside water tap. There were thirty inmates for the whole number. Only three sanitary conveniences were provided. The ; rents were Os to 9s a week, bringing in the owner £5 a week from the block, which was recently sold for over- £3OOO, That would give some idea ofh what; 1 it would cost the city] to acquire the land and wipe'out the slums. Another instance was ■ given in which the inmates, of ('six houses and a shop shared one cqi imon back yard and one single tap." Mr Roade stated that at the prose-fit time a pressing need existed for the supply of a number of cheap houses with rentals of Is to 8s a week. Even if the expense seemed heavy, it was a question whether it would not pay the city in tlie long run to acquire some sites of the" slums now, using the frontages for commercial purposes and the centre for municipal houses. As striking contrasts to the Auckland conditions ho threw on the screen -pictures of the —Workmen’s Homos—ciectcd and lot at cheap rentals at Port Sunlight and Hampstead Heath in -England. 'The mention of the name of the city engineer as being the author of an excellent suggestion to acquire a lot in the vicinity of Alexandra Street drew a tremendous burst of applause from the audience. The remedy, lie went on to say, lay in two directions. Tbe first method was for the City Council to resume the worst areas and rebuild corporation owned buildings. Quite a number of British cities had gone in for wholesale demolition. it had been found ruinously expensive, and not by any means the whole solution, because experience had shown that when an overcrowded area was wiped out the people carried their dirty habits to some other quarters, to create afresh the old slum conditions, and many of them did not return to take possession of the new houses built for them. The second method was to have, stricter and more explicit laws, by which the onus of remedying the defects was placed on the people who dented them—the landlords. For

that powers were wanted similar to those conferred on British local bodies and health officers by Mr John Burns’s celebrated Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. Under that a council, at the instigation of a health officer, could older the demolition of a defective house or condemn it for habitation until the owner repaired it in accordance with tiic requirements of the health officer. The health officer should he the —Final Court of Appeal.— It was the thoroughly commercialised individual, extorting the largest return from the poorer classes at (lie least possible expense to himself, that must bs brought to hook. By the second method the ratepayers would not be called on to face heavy expenditure, and it seemed the .cost reasonable and rational policy for the gradual and steady elimination of slum conditions.

Tiie Hon. G. Fowlds, who presided, had some intcresing remarks to make both before and after the lecture. He pointed out that legislation was not all that was required to set right the conditions that had arisen. They should never have come about, co on with the legislation now in force. What was essential was a healthy, cultivated, and instructed public opinion that would not tolerate such a state of affairs. Without such a feeling any legislation in tire world would be a dead letter. Having heard the ' lecture, and seen plainly tiro conditions existing in the city, he asked. Was it not time something was done? He added that during next session he intended to place before Parliament a town-planning Bill of a comprehensive nature. Mr Arthur Myers, M.P., congratulated the lecturer on the work ho had done in rousing- public opinion on the matter. Mr Myers hoped that, with the assistance <y the Hon. G. Fowlds, something would ho done next session in getting a Town-plan-ning Bill of a comprehensive nature through Parliament. He moved a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Reade, and a resolution—

That this meeting would heartily welcome from the Government a legislative measure conferring wider powers upon the health officers and local bodies, sufficient to enable them to compel owners and tenants to keep their premises clean and in habitable repair, and i'i every respect to enable tire health officers and local bodies to wipe out the menace of bad 1 arid insanitary housing conditions. The motion was seconded by Mr P. M. Mackay and carried unanimously.