CHRISTCHURCH SLUMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18257, 16 August 1921, Page 7

CHRISTCHURCH SLUMS

SCANDALOUS REVELATIONS. APOLOGIES FOR HOUSES. EXORBITANT ASKED. Correspondent N'.Z. Herald.) CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 13 A delegation from the council of Christian congregations, under the guidance of Mrs H. F. Herbert, visited some of the slum localities in the city. In a statement made afterwards the Rev. J. J. North said revelations of “rack renting” were forthcoming of quite a scandalous nature. The secret of the ceaseless agitation for higher wages might lie in part in the abnormal rents which were now asked for the most dilapidated apologies for houses. There were within the city bounds grossly in. sanitary houses in which children languished, and in which women lost heart and health. If any one doubted this a visit to Horatio Street, and to one particular house there would suffice. “Haining Street. Wellington.” he 'continued, “is sometimes pointed out as the Dominion's worst. I visited the worst houses there, and never saw such atrocious neglect as in the case referred to in Christchurch. Slum houses here occur very often in quite pleasant streets —a derelict old house consumed of worm, squat on the earth, with a leaking root .and dilapidation written all over it. Yet within a stone’s throw the tile-roofed bungalow, spick and span is found. This fact emphasises the need for quite a systematic census of the town. “We were shown a dolorous section in Montreal Street among dwarfed trees and debris. On this eligible property there are three or four cottages which are the last word in decay and insanitation. In one of these rabbit hutches a wounded sol. dier and his English wife live. The rent is to be bumped up 50 per cent, on them at once. A more hopeless outlook for a working man with a family and no home it is hard to conceive. “Tile- city which ‘blows’ £50,001: any totalisator day will have to wake up. We are reaping the bitter fruit of the boom. The rent of a decent house is now too high for a maa with an ordinary wage, plus a goodsized family. This is the situation, and how to grapple with it and cure it is a problem of the largest dimensions.” Archdeacon P. B. Haggitt said he could only describe the conditions as appalling. They reminded him ot the slums of London, only the cases were more isolated. All the houses were small, having no more than four or five rooms. In one such small house there were 19 people living, and in others the number of .occupants were 22, 14, and 12. It was found that five or six persons slept in one bed, and growing girls and boys occupied the same rooms. In many houses most of the windows would not open. The filth of the back yards was horrible; open drains, rubbish, and slush providing absolute plague spots. The rent in nearly all cases was exorbitantly high, 25/ a week being charged for . a shack not worth £lOO.