THE SLUMS OF LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1919, Page 9

THE SLUMS OF LONDON.

DOCTOR'S REVELATIONS. A CAUSE OP TUBERCULOSIS. Statements regarding the slums oi London and the provinces were made in the House of Commons when the Housing Bill came up for discussion. Dr. Addison took a few minutes, «hort of two hours to explain the measure. During the war the arrears of new houses, he 6aid, had mounted up to 330,000; and in an investigation which embraced only about a quarter of the country it was found that there were 370,000 houses classed either as unfit for habitation or seriously defective. About 3,000,000 people were living in over-crowded conditions, two in a room, 158,000 of these being in <the London County Council area. An analysis of an East London street Was given to show how a slum develops. It was Essex Street, Shoreditch, the home orjginally of tradesmen or fairly well-to-do people, now a street of tenement dwellings. In one house there ara six tenements, 31 people living there, with one water-tap down in the back yard and one water closet. Altogether ZD houses in that street shelter 733 people. "This is only a typical case," Dr. Addison said. 'There are scores of others liks it." The effects of those conditions, social and industrial, could hardly be exaggerated. The medical officer of Finsbury found that among 43S persons suffering from consumption, 352 were either sharing their beds or their bedrooms with other people. In some cases four or six persons slept in the same room as the consumptive. "Isn't it futile," Dr. Addison appealed to the Jtouse, "to spend money on dealing with tuberculosis when conditions like this exist?" What these houses eost the public was shown by the fact that from 15)12 to 1919, £8,500,00 was spent under the Insurance Act in fighting tuberculosis alone.

One curious social feature on which Dr. Addison laid his finger ia that those living in these insanitary dwellings are not ne'er-do-wells, but people in regular employment. The explanation? The people had lived all their liveß in the neighbourhood and liked to keep near their work.