HOUSING OF MINERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 233, 26 June 1919, Page 7

HOUSING OF MINERS

SORDID CONDITIONS

SQUALOR AND OVERCROWDING

PLAIN WORDS OF CRITICISM

Photographs of some incredibly small and shabby huts, which aro the homes uf the coal miners and their families in som« of the mining villages are contained in the report of tho Board of Trade on tho coal industry. With them are photographs of quite good cottages, with wellkept gardens, occupied by other miners in oilier villages. The board makes the following general remarks on housing and living conditions of miners:— In many of the mining a'tlloments the housing is generally of a rough or temporary nature. Many of tho huts were

erected in the early days of settlement,

and still do duty as the homes for the mino worker and his family. In many cases no ordinary conveniences have been

added, nor have any extra rooms been built, so that overcrowding is rife. The great majority of the houses have no porches or verandas, consequently the children have to crowd into these eniall shacks in -wet weather. It need hardly be emphasised that tho climatic conditions in most of the coal mine districts are

not good, and ,on tho West Coast, whero the rainfall averages over lOOin. per year, there is every need for the dwellings to be roomy and bright, and to provide ample drying facilities for the miner's clothes. Apart from overcrowding, there are tho added etfils of lack of drainage, lack of sanitation, and means of bathing. At Bur-

nott's Face and Denniston (near West

port) tho housing conditions are generally deplorable Both townships aro in a disgracefully dirty state; tho Btiriaco drainage is extremely bad; thero are ho fences or privacy; and there are no baths in any of the houses—tho occupants using kerosene tins "and tubs. There are few trees, and no flowers or gardens to brighten the general dreariness and desolation, and to these drawbacks are added all the disadvantages of a- wet, cold, and foggy climate. So unsuitable aro the conditions at present that the board steongly recommends the adoption of a suggestion made by Mr. Huvst'Seager that a new village settlement should l)e built on the plateau which lies between Denniston and Burnett's Face. This spot is half a mile nearer the works than Denniston, and there is ample spaco for laying out a model township with proper water supply and drainage. Tho causes which have led to the present conditions of housing in the mining settlements are bound up with tho haphazard; way in which tho villages have

grown up, a method far too common in respect of all Now Zealand towns. Tho towns were not pre-planned by a competent authority, nor was due consideration given to local conditions. Plans of some of the townships were prepared, streets and sections marked out in the legal rec-

tangular manner, and it has often been found on application of thosp plans to tho site that it is impossible either to form

roads or to build on many of tho sections

shown. Indeed, many of the sections on the original plan are C[uite unfit for building purposes. Some are swampy, and others aro on steep and rocky mountain sides along which the whole of tho drainage of the land and the household slops of the sections abovo fall to the sections below. ' In one case the only available fjiie for houses were on the site marked for a

road, and consequently houses have been built there, and the absolutely necessary tracks and roadways have had to bo

formed over private property. No thought has been spent on the aspect or prospect of the houses. Had proper consideration been given to the contour and steepness of tho land and the possibility of erecting healthy homes on tho sites selected, much of the present inconvenience and insanitary conditions would not have arisen. Generally there has been little thought for the health, convenience, or comfort nf tho workers who are called upon to live on the sites marked out. The hopelessness of the attempt to moke comfortable homos under tho conditions provided tends to create callousness and an utter, disregard for tho amenities of life, and to acceptance of conditions of housing similar to those found iu Uio Old World only as tho result.of.extreme poverty. There is considerable discontent with the conditions which exist, and there is an earnest ; desire on all sides to have them _ battered. One aspset of the problem is presented by instances coming under our notico where tho miner and his wife and a largo family aro living in two or three rooms and aro perfectly contented. In ono "shack" of two rooms there are father and mother ond stven children. Tho father, on being questioned, said ho did not wish for anything better; In cases of this kind it is neces6ary to protect Hie workers from themselves in order, that the children'may be brought up in proper living conditions, j