The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1927. THE PROBLEM OF THE SLUM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19914, 9 August 1927, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1927. THE PROBLEM OF THE SLUM

“Posterity may look back upon the time in which we are now living as one of strangely contrasted capabilities,” said the Manchester Guardian recently in reference to the slum areas which deface so many Home cities. “In the mechanical field, it went on to say, “man’s power to organise has won such tremendous victories that his inability to organise his social relations and amenities seems all the more strange and all the more discreditable.” This comment may be quoted apropos remarks made by our present visitor, the Rev. James Barr, M.P. for Motherwell, Scotland, in addresses delivered in Wanganui during the last day or two. Mr Barr spoke mainly in reference to the terrible overcrowding in Glasgow, but very similar conditions pertain to most of the large cities at Home. Much of what he said was doubtless familiar to many of his hearers, but hearing such- disclosures at first hand naturally brings such conditions more vividly before us, and his remarks should be especially noted by the people of a young country, if only as a warning to take steps in time to prevent such a state of affairs happening here. The fact that the begninning of slums is already in evidence in the chief cities in New Zealand makes the warning all the more necessary. In New Zealand it is so far a case of prevention being better than cure. In*the Old Land, the disease is already there and it is the cure which must be sought. Few realise, however, the practical difficulties in the way. The financial difficulty is not the chief one; that could be overcome. Nor is the tearing down and opening up of the slum an obstacle. The chief problem is to find a substitute for it, and that is not so easy as it seems at first sight. Opening a town-planning exhibition at Birmingham a few weeks ago, Mr Neville Chamberlain, the British Minister of Health, put forward the idea, not a new one it may be said, that there might be a redistribution of the population by the creation of new cities, which should be limited to a definite size, and in which past experience and the knowledge of past mistakes should be utilised as guides in their planning. “I have no doubt,” said the Minister, “that the multiplication of what are known as garden cities would go a long way towards solving those costly problems which every industrial town in this country has to face—the problem of the slums and of how to find housing accommodation for people within a reasonable distance of their work.” The reading of cities and even of the countryside has an influence upon living condiitons, more especially in this motor age, which is not generally recognised, and in this connection Mr Chamberlain made another useful suggestion. He did not think the general public realised the part which roads were now taking and were going to take in the near future and he suggested that, when laying out new arterial roads, houses should have no direct access to them except by means of footpaths, but should be served by side roads. It requires little imagination to realise how much safety of life and limb would be ensured by the adoption of such a policy. POPULATION AND INDUSTRIES But to decide upon clearing the slum and replacing it by the garden city is one thing; to effect it is another. To rebuild the slum, even upon a better plan, may not always work, for such areas may be, in fact many of them are, quite unsuitable for residential purposes. The ideal would certainly seem to be the creation of new cities to bring about a redistribution of population. But here we are at once brought up against the question of site. To throw industrial workers into a rural society which does not need them would obviously be no solution, but it should be found possible to plan towns which could be made to serve as common centres for both manufacturing and agricultural industries. But this means, not only the abolition of the slums, the creation of new cities and the transference of population, but also the transference of the manufacturing industries which support them. It is conceivable that this may prove costly and difficult, in some cases impossible. The shipbuilding industry, for example, could not be shifted from the Clyde to to a point inland, though, if suitable sites were available, it could no doubt be extended along the banks of the Clyde itself. Perhaps, however, that is quoting an extreme case. The probability is that in most cases, industries could shift their locale along with the people employed in them. But that is not to be done by the stroke of a pen. A vast amount of reorganisation would be necessary. Still it could be done to a very large extent and, in the best interests of all concerned, it ought to be done. As the paper from which we quote at the outset very pertinently observed, when discussing this very point in connection with Mr Neville Chamberlain’s suggestion: “What is involved is a co-operation between leading firms in one or more expanding industries for whom new workshops are essential, a local authority, the building and transport industries, and the Ministry of Health. Many of the light industries are expanding rapidly, as is shown by the new factories on the edges of large towns and particularly round London, which is already far too large. The new towns could be built to relieve the old and built to the general advantage if co-ordination of purposes could be effected. Are we to go on piling one marvel of mechanical organisation on top of another and leave our towns in anarchy and our slums in squalor?” The last clause of this quotation is full of significance. It is the slum and the squalor of the slum which engender Bolshevism. Among gardens and open spaces and in decent housing, no Bolshevism is to be found, and Society—using the word in its largest sense—should, for its own protection, see that its poorer members are not compelled to live in surroundings which, by their very nature, produce discontent and breed eongenital rebels. Among the many perplexing problems which the Old Country has to face, this is undoubtedly one of the most serious and, with the march of the years, it may become serious in New Zealand too unless, on the principle of prevention being better than cure, steps are taken in time to guard against the overgrowth of our cities. One of the most important of these steps, as well as one of the most difficult, is undoubtedly the location of industries, which is, indeed, one of the first to be considered.