HOUSING THE PEOPLE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 109, 1 February 1935, Page 10

HOUSING THE PEOPLE

Moving the Second Reading of the Housing Bill in the House of Commons, the Minister of Health made an observation which is not without sonic point for our local authorities. Ihe first essential, said Sir Hylton Young, was that of arriving at a national standarci of what overcrowding was, and it was proposed in the Bill to make it a legally punishable offence to overcrowd a house in excess of the fixed standard. The British housing scheme is, of course, an attackon slum conditions concerning which people in this country have no conception, and represents a most important and highly significant advance in social policy. But the interesting and impressive point about it is that it is an attempt to fix definite standards of health and comfort, and the most important of these is the provision for preventing overcrowding. ‘ . Altho-<b we in Wellington have nothing comparable with the housing conditions existing in certain parts of the United Kingdom, it may’ be accepted as a fact that overcrowding in sot-called “flats” does exist. In previous references to this question it has been emphasised that the conditions of some flat dwellers leaves much to be desired. There are also houses in some parts of the city in which peoolc are living under conditions by no means conducive to health, comfort and self-respect. These conditions should not be'allowed to continue, but as long as public opinion is apathetic about the matter effective action will not be taken by the City Council. There is need for an investigation, and a very thorough one, of existing housing conditions and rentals if the present visible tendency toward Slum conditions is to be checked before it becomes a serious social evil. Tn the meantime the public will await with interest the details of the British Housing Bill, and particularly that section of it which deals with overcrowding.