HOUSING PROBLEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15309, 9 August 1923, Page 2

HOUSING PROBLEMS.

CONDITIONS AT OHRISTCHURCH

DEPUTATION TO CITX COUNCIL

A deputation headed by Archdeacon Taylor waited on the Christchurch City Council relative to the housing problem. The members of :he deputation were mostly ladies. Archdeacon Taylor said most of the local benevolent and humanitarian organisations in Ctristchurch, cf all creeds, were represented in the deputation. He trusted the Council would sympathise with the desires of the reputation in securing better housing conditions for the poorer people. The boardinghouses were overcrowded and whole families in apartment houses were forced to live in a single room'. Miss Cardalc said in one house which was quite uninhabitable, a family with eight children lived. Another house in Sydenham, not fit for a dog to live in, housed a family with four children, while in another place a father, mother and four children were living in one room and sleeping in one bed. Old people were living in dilapidated old shanties altogether, and it was impossible to expect decency to prevail when conditions were so awful. Nurse Maude said the morals of the young people would not bo improved by the conditions under which the poor people were compelled to live. Archdeacon Taylor said the members of the deputation had not considered the matter of proposing a remedy, and he did not know that they would all be agreed. The Mayor (Mr. Plesher) said that housing'" was a Government matter. The council was prepared to go ahead with a £200,000 scheme for housing, but the Government would not supply the money. Even as it was the council was disappointed with the reception accorded the modest schemes already inaugurated. lie hoped, however, that more money would be available from the Government for housing purposes.

Councillor Beanland moved: "That the matter be referred to the housing committee." He said the committee might consider the idea of erecting a smaller type of house which would be suitable/ for elderly people. The molion was carried.