HODGE AT HOME.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 30 October 1912, Page 3

HODGE AT HOME.

THE PRETTY COTTAGE

AND HOW THEY LIVE IN IT

(Written for tho "Chronicle" by S. V Bracher).

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DANBURY, Essex, September 20. Until tho holiday season was quite over, ono oould not take a walk in this largo and scattered villago without seeing artists, in ones and twos and halfdozens, at every turn of the road or point of picturesque vantage on tho common. They were sketching the old cottages. And the cottages should look very well in tho London art galleries, for even where tho walls do not quaintly lean," or tho roofs delightfully sag, they are of such odd. irregular shapes, and of such harmonious colours in ancient bricks and tiles and weather-stain-ed wood and plaster, that they appear to ho a result, like the gardens and hedges around them, of a "friendly cooperation between man and nature. And yet f cannot pick up a local paper without finding something about tho cxtremo difficulty of housing the rural poor, and I oan hardly talk to an inhabitant without hearing about tho dearth, thr* sni='ll'io?s. fh? rTnmpn^s and tho unhealthiness of the cottages. Those trouble?: aro not new, and they are notconfined to Essex. The wretched inadequacy of the housing of t^o pgrieulturcil labourers wp.s notorious even before Tennyson and Kingsloy exposed it in versos of an appalling and almost indecent frankness. Tlicro h:ivo br-en Royal Commission*; and Acts of Parliament, and -still tho evil, thomrh in some respects lessened, is of terrible proportions. Tn-s"«r-tion by the lor-al authorities, kept Tin to the mark by the Lootl Government 'Hoard, ho.s led "to- bettor, though far from perfect, sanitary conditions, but thero :<r still a great scarcity of cottages, and much overcrowding.'The- evil is recognised by. all part:es, ard whilo tlio "Daily News and Lender" hi- n "fnocinl" traversing Somerset and Norfolk, tho "T)nilv Mail" b.rs a corrofirondent careering through Wiltshire. The stories thn ~ have to toll ronld T «nnpose. }>o pnrnllelrd to every county. They could certainly bo capped in Essex. A COTTAGE TN7F/RTOR. T visited an empty eottngo tho of^er day. Tho farmer who owns it prefers noti*^ let it. though men en mo several mile*, every day to work for him. The cottaeo contains four sr»M) rooms. T'.vo •of them aro under a loin-to roof, which ir; so low thnt p. m.in of nvoraw height cannot stand itprigl^. 'Die windov--; +.li.eso two moms are single panes of glass, one small ono in or!i ro*>">i—nnd ono of tliens will not o-yu. The oilier onerr. into p.n out 1-.rvnc. o tb.nt hp.s i! cod ps a stable. TM pl.^s^-T v>-?ibin donr.ci if; stnined with (fa^in.. for thero i" no d^.mp-ponr.co in +ho bivel- wplls. nrd tho floors— nlso nf lir-'eV rr^ laid <lirr"-± on the enrtb. T was f<-.'d thr\t. a emmle who lived thero brmvrV. nr> " fnrvlv *<V fourteen childreri. some of wl-.nm were now in grv»d I>o':itrO"i?. I-,! tiK rriV '''•!• formant been p, ser'oi?l-. nvr) re-^ri^^K•;! ]" man, I should ho.ye tlin'iglit, V r^int, horizontal positions in th^ "hurchynrd. "YOUNG PEOPLE DT7TVFN A7V.*Y. !> In a striking renorfc on the housing of tho wrvrkin<r 'ri Ff,wy f'>o Oorintv M"r]ier>l Of^e^r pe^rirl-'. n^^^rdi'Tr to a Chelmsford naper. "snmetb'np- ?fW> & noto of.despair o.s to xho nre^>f>b'*'t-v of nnvthing beirif br fl-.o ]nm] .«»ij. thoritiefl, tho mojority of the m^m.ber^

of which som generally to oppose action being;- taken on the ground of expense.'" Ho finds that good work has been done in the improvement of existing cottages,, but what is urgently needed is a supply of better cottages. " Many cottages that ■are occupied aro barely fit for human habitation, and continue to bo occupied merely because tliero aro no 'better houses into which the tenants can move. There is a, general want of cottages with three- bedrooms, and in consequenco <-i this overcrowding from time to time occurs, immorality is fostered, and infectious diseases spread. In many parishes young people are being driven away because they wish to marry and cannot obtain a cottage in which to reside." "CHARGEABLE TO THE UNION.' < I picked up the "Essex Herald" and read how Harry Runciman, labourer, of Chelmsford, was charged with neglecting his wife and family, whereby they had becomo chargeable to tho union. Jt sems that Runciman could not get a house- to livo in. "I have done, my best," ho said, "to get a house all over tho town. I walked to Stock last Saturday week and tried there, but. I was unable to get one. What am 1 to do? I am in good work that will carry mo through tho winter." So the Runciman family became inmates of the Chelmsford Union Workhouse. He says he offered to pay tho guardians for maintenance of his family, but they refused to tako his money, Raying that they were not running the place as a lodging house. He, on tho other hand, refused to do the task-work imposed upon him at tho workhouse, contending, presumably, that ho w-as not there as a prtuper. For this offence ho was fined Is, and 4s costs. He was given time to pay but did not do so. 'Vfter a few weeks he comes before the bench again, charged this time with allowing his family to become charovablo to the union. Ho tells the •maffistrntes that he would tako bin family out of tho workhouse, if ho could ret a. houfe-. Ho has kept on looking for one, and has even searched p.i far afield as the town of Bramtree. Peoplo would not even let him have a four-roomed cottage.

Tho chairman : Why ? Defendant: Because I have so many children. My mother brought up fourteen of us in a. four-roomed cottage, and there was not a, quarter of the illness thero is now. No attempt scorns to have been made to discredit the defendant's version of the ca&e, but the Bench, consisting of a colonel, a Knight of the Bath, and three "esquires," could think of nothing better to do tha« to sentence Rnnciman to a month's hard labour. I confess I do not know how they could have helped him to get a house. NEW USE FOR A HENHOUSE. Tt was reported to one of the Rural District Councils in this county a few days ago that children were "still" living in tho workhouse because of tho

tack of room in the cottages. Yet m motion to build cottages at once was defeated. At tho last meeting of tho Dimmow Rural Council, the sanitary inspector reported that in a case of over--crowding in a cottage a lodger has ceased to sleep in the house, but slept in a henhouso adjoining a pigstye. The man had stated that he could not get anotherlodging. It seems that it barely pays to builtl decent cottages and let them at 3s. ar week, and even this is admittedly a higher rent than the farm labourer canpay out of his 14s to 16s for a week's work. Meanwhile, the Local Government Board insists that housing schemes must bo self-supporting. "No wonder if* to many who truly desire a better stateof affairs tho situation presents itself asa deadlock.