MORE HOMES NEEDED

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 181, 26 April 1919, Page 8

MORE HOMES NEEDED

Sir-Noiv titiat tha paralysing influence of the war is relaxed and things are beginning to move again, we listen with special interest to. hear .what the candidates tor election to the City Council and Mayoralty, in this the first postwar municipal election, have to say to tlio electors. Many good and useful matters huvc been mentioned, out oi the most urgent and burning question of tliem all, namely,, the. doing away with the dangerous slum areps which tlio late visitation of • inlliien/a , has shown to exist iu the city, little has been said. During the live months that have elapsed since its discovery by the public nothing lias been dono to remove tins danger, nor could be, because there aro not enough houses available to receivo the people whom the pulling-down of tho slums would leave homeless. . In addition to this, our soldiers aro returning in their thousands, some of them bringing wives aiid children,\ soino to fuliil postponed engagements of marriage, somo to sot up again homes broken up bv the war, and these families will swell the demand for house accommodation in the near future. So that the clearing away of slum areas and the relief of overcrowding in tho eity generally cannot bo accomplished until extensive house-building takes place in tho suburbs The suburbs, some of tnem already waded, drained, tram-served, ana supplied with water, gas, and electric lighting, with their thousands of acres ready for' tens of thousands of population, are waiting for the builders; but almost no 0110 builds, and why? Bccauso the cost of tram fares makes living in tho suburbs so expensive that families cannot afford to live there. Therefore building ecliemes in the suburbs cannot bo carried out until tram fares are cheapenedlliat is to say, until the long-talked-of universal twopenny tram itire materialises. , Universal tram fares are. not an experiment: they are an established success in some boroughs at home, and ill America they aro common-indeed, there, if it is dosircd to develop a suburban area, the first tiling dono is to run out a branch tnim lino to tho, district in question, ,and the houses and population soon follow and ho branch line pays, of course. The policy of the \\ eliin'aton . municipality has hitherto been to sacrifice tho development of the suburbs to the tram profits. of tlift city. Only a few years ago lliey interpolated ft penny section between each of two important and promising suburbs and tho citv. and 0110 at least of tlioso subinbs Ins never recovered from tho blo\\. And now wo see tho coming of the Nemesis; slums and oveucrowding in tho city,, ieliof of which must wait for building in the suburbs; and building enterprise in the suburbs waiting for tlio universal twopenny tram fare. And what are our would-be mayors and councillors s.ijing about it What sign do our present candidates for municipal olheo shon ot an) chango of heart in this matter ? labour candidates talk freely of a universal ham fare, and their supporters in P r "«™ c ° . versation say..'Tut Labour in net it!" But many of us-I hope most oTus-would prefer to see our mumn «1 affairs in tlio hands of subs anblal cil zens. men of business expericiice, of m« « or less education, and with a s™ o '" tlio citv and the candidates, of that class show littlo evidence of havu^[ given serious thought to Ihw of tha Miliiect. His Worship the Ma)oi said the othor day that tlio run for a profit, which in tlio present position of affairs hardly soundsl hopeful. Yet there aro many of- us who would liko to see (he "H elhngton housing problem solved by the hi L™ the suburbs to provide healthy and comfortable homes for the people, with cheap transit for tho workers between homo and work, to whom putting Labour in" appears to be a dangerous means of hastening tho solution. Are our modcrato candidates wise in leaving thoughtful and consoiontious volci* poised thus between tho devil and t® deep sea I am, oto., i, LOOKING FOEWAB&