BRITAIN'S "OVERFLOW CITIES."

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 311, 12 November 1910, Page 3

BRITAIN'S "OVERFLOW CITIES."

An original and striking suggestion for coping with the congested labour conditions of the older countries has been made by Mr Norton Griffiths, who represents a Midland constituency in the House of Commons. Mr Griffiths, in the course of his business as a membar of a large firm of railway contractors, travels all over the world, and while in Canada recently he completed arrangements for founding three new cities, Wednesbury, Tyston and Darlaston, the first of these townships being named after his own English constituency. Interviewed by a representative of the "Daily News" on his return to London, Mr Griffiths said that the movement he had initiated was entirely non-political. He wanted every over-crowded constituency such as his own at Wednesbury to form an Imperial League, whose business it would be to help the right sort of men to go to Canada. The Wednesbury Imperial League was founding a new Wednesbury on the other side of tha Atlantic. The now city would offer as far as possible similar occupation to that Wednesbury was now providing. At the same time, he said, there would be plenty of agricultural employment for those who desired it. The new Tyston and new Darlaston would also be "hardware" towns, and it would be operated in their vicinity. There would be no attempt to confine new Wednesbury to old Wednesbury people. The promoters of the movement would be well satisfied if 15 to 20 per cent, of the population consisted of former residents of the English Wednesbury, so as to prevent their having to live entirely amongst stranger sat the outset. Mr Griffiths added that already 1200 applications for residence in the new Wednesbury had been received from Wednesbury people, and about seventy applicants had gone to Canada and would live in other communities pending the formation of the new town, which, judging by his experience of the rapidity of growth of towns in Canada, should be accomplished within twelve months. Mr Griffiths went on to prophesy that Canada was on the verge of one of tha greatest prosperity waves the world had ever seen", and said that it' the fruits of that prosperity were not to fall into the hands of American, French and German capitalists, British people must go out and do the pioneer work that was necesssary.