OVERCROWDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1920, Page 5

OVERCROWDING.

NEW PLYMOUTH CONDITIONS more Revelations. INSPECTOR DAY'S REPORT. "This question is closely allied to tho house shortage and insanitary houses," says Inspector Day, in a report on overcrowding, received at last night's meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council. Mr. Day reported':—"At the present time there are dozens of families undei notice to quit, the houses having been sold. At the same time there are more than twenty houses which are unfit to live in, and which would be pulled down if empty. There are people living in tha old Drill Hall, a place which in most parts leaks like a sieve. Thqfe is a family living in the Fitzroy Hall, the, back room being an unlined weather-board lean-to. Other people who have sections are building outbuildings, which will be used its wash-houseß or garages when a new house is built. Others, again, are moving into new houses as soon as the floors are down and the roof iB on' .One family is living in an iron garage in Leach Street, formerly a paint shop ■while another .is living further along in a place that stood empty for years, and should have been pulled down.' In addition to this, there are many houses occupied by two families, sueh as two sisters and their husbands and families, or mother and married daughter and families. The Inspector proceeded to quote soma of the cases he had noted, and they provided an interesting study.. In a house in Vivian Street, the rent was £1 p.?r room, and upstairs there was one married couple in one room, two single girls in each of two other rooms, while an elderly lady slept on the couch in the living room. All had the common use of tho scullery. Downstairs the rent was 15s per room, similar conditions existing, and the total inhabitants' of the nine rooms, kit- ! chen and scullery, was nineteen persons. This record, if such can be claimed for it, wa;s equalled by a, Lemon Street dwelling, where there were 29 people in fifteen rooms, and this included the case of a man and wife and six children living in two rooms. In another part of the same street a lady and four children haJ the use of two rooms and a scullery, and the two front rooms housed a man, his ■wife and five children. The report dwelt , on other cases of overcrowding, but to ft less degree. In receiving the report, the .Council decided to take up the matter of the pur* chase of hutments from the Defence Department. The value of the report was enhanced by a set of photographs secured by the Inspector in some of the localities, the snapshots being illustrative of the Various types of "shacks" encountered on the inspection. .