Book Reviews.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 9, 1 May 1920, Page 791

Book Reviews.

"The Home I Want." ■ '' The Home I Want,'' by Richard Reiss, published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2/6 net.—We can heartily recommend this book to ail those interested in the housing movement. The book summarises the main facts and legislative provisions as existing in England up to September 1919, and gives some working suggestions as to the plans and internal arrangement of cottages, the layout of land for building purposes, and other practical matters.

The author in his introductory remarks, points out that the actual extent to which improvements in housing conditions will be carried out in each district depends upon the local inhabitants. Many Acts of Parliament have been passed giving local authorities wide powers, and it is safe to say that if these powers had been properly exercised, the housing problem would have been largely solved. He stresses the necessity of preparing adequate plans at once, and points out that the housing problem is one of the basic problems upon the solution of which other problems depend. He shows how health, for instance, is bettered by a comparison of Shoreditch with Letchworth. In the latter town the infant mortality is only 30 per 1000 infants under 12 months, while in Shoreditch the number was 165, per thousand. Strong arguments are given showing how education, agriculture (including village life), and intemperance, can be improved' by better housing conditions; Besides the space devoted to housing there is a chapter on town planning, and another on Town Planning Act of 1919, giving the very latest information on the subject that ought to be of the greatest value to our New Zealand housing reformers.