ONE OF BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 852, 25 June 1910, Page 4

ONE OF BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS.

The concentration of political interest in Great Britain upon tho constitutional issue has resulted in the partial obscuring of tho most valuable plank in the Unionist party's programme. We do not refer to Tariff Reform, concerning tho value of which there is very substantial room for differences of opinion, but to the "small holdings" policy. While the quest-ion of land tenure is in this country a subject of debate, or rather, wo should say, while sane ideas upon land tenure have to contend against a Government dominated by the minority who are aiding tho Socialist movement for land nationalisation, there is no disagreement amongst British statesmen as to the national importance of the freehold principle. Mit. Balfour, as he told a City audience on March 4 last, has always been "earnestly desirous of seeing freehold occupancy greatly increased both in town and country," and his party have formed a Land Union, the object. of which is to create as large a number as possible of 'farmer-proprietors and peasant-proprietors. This Union has already begun a vigorous campaign, although it has naturally to faco the opposition of the Liberal press, which is all for the freehold and for land settlement, but is bound to resent the adoption of such a good and popular" policy by the Unionist party. The need for the Union is very great, but it. is perhaps not so great, nor so -immediately pressing, as the extension of stnall freehold occupancy in urban areas. In New Zealand, although city rents are high, there do not exist the conditions which led the Royal Commission of 1884 on the Housing of the Working Classes., of which h?s late Majesty, then Prince of Wales, was a member, to frame'a powerful indietment of the leasehold system in general and the leasehold system in towns in particular. Since 1884 an amount of attention has been given to this question which is literally immense; and as the years have passed the need for a strong settlement of the city' housing . problem has become more sharply marked. Tho serious effect of overcrowding in tho ci tics is displayed in glaring colour by the statistics in the report of the Glasgow School Board in 1906. The investigators measured 72,857 school children and found that" tho average weight of boys from one-roomed houses was 52.6 pounds, from tworoomed houses 56.1 pounds, from three-roomed houses GO pounds, and from houses of four rooms 64.3 pounds. The average heights were respectively 46.6, 48.1, 50, and 51.3 inches. Results pointing in the sama direction were obtained by the Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, which showed that the death-rate per thousand in Glasgow was 11.2 amongst dwellers in fourroomed houses, and rose progressively to 32.7 per thousand amongst those: w.ho .herded in bne-rtiom homes. There is abundance of evidence to bear out ■ the natural . supposition that overcrowding and -.unsuitable housing accommodation, ai-e in" British cities leading factors: in the social diseases of physical unsoundness, drunkenness, immorality, and thriftlessness. Hitherto the Liberal party has to consider that "social reform" must work along the lines of discouraging capital and harassing landowners. Only the Socialists, however, or those who," without realising .it, have' the Socialist temperament, of which the peculiar character is an inability or unwillingness to think clearly, really believe that the people in the slums are comforted in proportion as the taxes on industry are increased. The Unionist party has begun a fine work in moving for the extension of freehold occupancy in tho rural districts, hut it becomes yearly of greater importance to the safety of tho nation, that the urban problem be dealt with in some effective way. Possibly the spread of the Unionists' freehold efforts in this direction may prove a not unimportant factor in assisting to solve the problem.