LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 59, 4 December 1918, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE HOUSING PROBLEM Sir—Jt has been slated and I think it has been generally accepted that ft great amount of good will ultimately result from the evil of the great war which has just been concluded. We have been fighting for and hope to have "A New World. In tho same way, without doubt, a great amount of good will result from the evil of the epidemic which is still working its way amongst us. Never before has it been so dearly demonstrated that the housing conditions of the 'great majority of the unskilled workers are in all our Dominion towns appalling. The slum areas end slum conditions at once prove beyond dispute that no town can afford to throw stones at another. In .all there are very many houses not fit for human habitation. These conditions of housing, vhich have now been discovered by the many, have for long been known to the few. Town planners in all our Dominion towns have raised their voices against the demoralising conditions which they know io exist. Seme years ago Mr. Charles Keade, who is now" the Government Town Planner in Adelaide, commenced a crusade in Auckland. His voice was as one crying in the wilderness. The only effect his crusade had was to »iiuke the people angry that the fair name 1 of their city should be taker* from tliem.

Successful efforts have been made by beautifying associations in the Dominion cities, but no attempt has been made i to get rid of the eryingWil of bad housing 'which lies in Hie heart of them. Individual effort may make for I.eautification, but more than individual effort is required in order to successfully solve the problem of housing workers. The Dominion has done more than any of the Australian States, but it has r.nly touched the fringe of the problem. The State, the local authority, tho municipal councils, and business organisations must nil join together to create scientifica and convenient homes in healthy and beautiful surroundings. It is no use our mayors and eonncils and council engineers stating that their town is at any rate all right and free from slums. They must at once acknowledge there are very dark spots for it is proved beyond dispute and generally m-know-ledged that slums and slum <oliditions exist, nnd they must at once tackle the problem of removing them. Such schemes are now b?ing undertaken in all parts of the world. We have been criminally neglectful ' in allowing the same state of things to be created in this young country- as are to be found in the cities of the Old World.

But.those at present in authority cannot be specially blamed for the state of things which have arisen. We have thoughtlessly followed the Old World in allowing our towns io "row without any thniiehr or control, and without any lav;. We liavs allowed private persons to cut up their blocks of land as they would, and crowd upon them as many houses as possible, without any thought or consideration to the town's wplfarp. We must not now rest satisfied with the statement hat "our death-rates compare favourably with that of any city in.the world," for it would indeed be a very shocking state of affairs if with the greater proportion of our houses standing detached in their own gardens our death-rate approached that ot Old World statement that "our death-rates compare ing the death-rates we need to have the statistics of the death-rates of the crowded and insanitary areas and the insanitary homes which are spread about in other parts of tho cities. A slightly lower deathrate does not necessarily mean greater healthfulness. Various circumstances have to be taken into account before a true comparison can lie made. _ Non« of our Dominion cities can claim to be more healthy than the other. That Wellington has a low death-rate and Dunedin a high one, as compared with the other Dominion towns, is due to the fact that Wellington has a less and Dunedin a greater proportion of old people among its citizens. The difference in the death-rate is so slight that the relative position of the cities varies from year to year. The menn death-rate for the five.years preceding 1916 for cities and suburbs is: i -

Auckland 9.66 Wellington 3.38 Ghristchurch 9.98 Dunedin 10.88 These records are below the best records for European towns, but are very much higher, in fact more than double the dea.th-rate of the model garden cities and garden suburbs which have been established in England and elsewhere. They are: Ffamnstead Garden Suburb . 4.2 Industrial Garden Suburb of Letchworth 4.8 Messrs. Cmlbury's Garden Vi!la#! of Uonviivillo „. 5.7 while nt the industrial village—Port Sunlight—where the majority of tho residents are engaged at Messrs. Lever's sonn works, tho death-rate is only 8.1. These are the ideals we must strive for. and they can only he reached by sweeping away the slum areas which, exist, and by pulling down the insanitary homes scattered about the' cities. But it is no use pulling down slums without having comprehensive and states-man-like schemes for housing the. workers who have to live in thwn. We must first erect self-contained garden villages and garden cities in which many of the ■workers who are crowded info our cities can carry out their work under the most healf'v conditions and beautiful surroundings. Tlie most urgent "pcessitv of the moment is that the Town Planning Bill which has been circulated by the Hon. G. W. Hussell should at the earliest mome«f become law. so that all the disabilities under which the councils and labour authorities labour would be. removed. There would then be not the least excuse for allowing the appalling conditions which now exist to remain. Much can lv> done without waiting for the Town Planning Act. The councils have already power under existing legislation to resume nny-properties, and Dower to erect workers' homes. Auckland is making a start. It is urgently necessary that all other cities should follow.—T am, etc., P. FVT?ST REACT!!?, Vi<*-Presiclent, Federated T.P. Association of N.Z.