THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16311, 11 December 1918, Page 4

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

NEEDS IN THE DOMINION. The housing problem is one which must afford tho public much food for thought,, and an opinion from such an expert in town-planning matters a.s Mr. S. Hurst Seager should ba well worth having. Speaking on the question, Air. Hurst Seager said that never before had it been .so clenriy demonstrated that the housing conditions of tho great majority of the unskilled' workers were in all our Dominion towns appalling. The slum areas and slum conditions at once proved beyond dispute that no town could afford to throw stones at another. 1 In all there were very many houses not fit for human habitation. Successful efforts had been made by beautifying associations in the Dominion cities, Mr. Hurst Seager, proceeded, but no attempt had been made to get rid of tho crying evil of bad housing which lav in the heart of them. More than individual effort was required in order to successfully solve tho problem of housing workers. The Dominion had done more than any of tho Australian States, but it had only touched tho fringe of the problem. We had been criminally neglectful in allowing the same state of things to bo created in tin’s young country as were to be found in the cities of the Old World. Wo must not now rest satisfied. Air. Hurst Seager went on, with the statement that our death-rate compared favourablv with that of any city in the world,” for it would indeed he a very shocking state of affairs if with the greater proportion of our houses standing detached in thou- own gardens our death -rate appr cached that of Old World cities. A slightly lower deathrate did not necessarily mean greater hcnlthfulnoss. Various circumstances had to he taken into account before a true comparison could bo made, and none of our Dominion cities eonld claim to bo more healthy than the others. Tho most urgent necessity of the moment, Air. Hurst Seager conclud'd, was that, tho Town-Planning Bill which had born circulated hv tlie Hon. G. W. Russell should at tho cnrb’-'st moment become law. so that all the disabilities under which tho founds and local authorities labour would he removed. There would then be no! the least excuse for allowing the appalling conditions which now existed to roma:n. Auckland was making a start, and it was urgently necessarily that all other cities should follow.