The Housing Problem.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 5, 1 January 1919, Page 405

The Housing Problem.

It is gratifying to note that the question of . decent housing is not being allowed to drop. The papers are full of correspondence on the matter, and every idealist and politician . seeking votes is making the best of his opportunity. In Auckland a big scheme is being discussed by the City Council for providing workers’ homes, and in Christchurch an Association has been formed as a result of a public lecture being given by Mr. Hurst Seager, F.R.1.8.A. Mr. Seager chose as his subject “The Housing Problem and its Solution.” The chair was taken by the Mayor, Mr. H. Holland, and a fair number of people turned out to hear the lecture. Mr. Seager, in his opening remarks, said that many reformers had raised their voices during the past fifty years against the terrible housing of the poor, but no State had yet grappled with the problem. It had been left for private enterprise to give a lead in the establishment of garden cities —a lead which had subsequently been followed by the British Government when building its garden cities, of a kind, for the housing of munition workers. One of the foremost pioneers in the better housing problem was Ebenezer Howard, who had fought for better conditions and been a great advocate of the housing of the people in garden suburbs or garden cities, rather than in the congested towns. The speaker contrasted the physical, economical, moral, and intellectual .conditions of life in town or city and the country. There were certain advantages, of course, in city life, more particularly from a social and economic point of view, but when the physical aspect began to be considered, the statistics showed an overwhelming advantage in favour of life in a garden suburb or garden city. These statistics showed an amazing difference in the death rates of the congested wards of the cities as compared with those of garden cities, and the figures relating to infantile mortality and physical development were as graphic. It had been said that there was a large class of people who would not benefit from bettered conditions, but who would drag down their surroundings to their own level. He did not believe this for a minute. It might not be possible to absolutely regenerate the people who at present lived under barbarous conditions, but the effect of a decent environment had been proved, to be amazing on a particularly rough slum class- in Liverpool, and it should and would have the same effect on other people of a similar class. As the result had been good in several cases, he thought it was their duty

to try and obtain such conditions for as many people as possible. Mr. Seager, whose lecture was illustrated with a fine series of lantern sides, then turned to the subject of garden cities. A true garden city was a self-contained unit. In the existing ones, the industrial porton of the community was incorporated in the garden city, and the workers’ homes were grouped about in a carefully studied fashion. If the population of the garden city grew beyond the dimensions for which it was originally designed, a garden suburb was established, connected with the city by tram. The speaker exhibited a number of slides, which showed vividly the contrast, from a picturesque point of view, of a city laid out in the old-fashioned rectangular style, and the more modern plan as seen in a properly planned garden city. In many cases the cost of the delightful setting out of a garden city, with its pleasing vistas in every direction, was actually no more than the cost of the old four-square style. In some examples, the cost was greater, but in every case die value received for a comparatively small extra expense was so great that the bargain was an obviously good one. It was quite a fallacy to think that crowding houses on the land, thereby creating slum conditions, was an economical procedure, and the speaker showed plans on the screen which proved that with careful arrangement practically as many houses could be placed on the land, if a scientific plan was pursued, with not anything like the same sense of overcrowding. The road problem was one which would have to be dealt with before town-planning could be properly carried out. To insist on roads 66ft. wide for all purposes was not only absurd, but most expensive. The roads should be suited to the traffic they were to bear. In some cases 66ft. would be , too narrow; in others, 20ft. was plenty wide enough.- By properly grading the sizes of the roads to the objept they were to serve, an enormous amount of money could be saved, and a great deal of land saved for houses and gardensIt was a cardinal principal that garden cities must be for all classes of the community. There must be no special workers’ community and a residential area for those who were wealthier. Of course, different classes of houses were provided in garden cities at different rentals to suit the purses of tenants, but the whole idea of the city tended to foster the idea-of a single community, and not to separate class from class. Mr. Seager shoAved a remarkably interesting series of vieAvs contrasting the attempts of- the Australian and New Zealand Governments to deal with the housing problem. Ncav Zealand led Australia in the matter so far, but though the idea had_ been good, its execution had been devoid of imagination, and the same old straight streets and four square houses Avith high paling fences in front had been erected, Avith dire results. The Ncav Zealand Government had had a fine chance to establish a nice little garden village at Lake Coleridge, but the actual result Avas chaotic, and the huts and cottages had been dotted here and there without design, with a result that the place neither looked

pleasing nor was convenient. In the speaker’s opinion, the formation of the garden city or village was the only true solution of the housing problem, and it would be particularly applicable for the, housing of returned soldiers. With a properly designed garden settlement situated on a main line of rail, industries of all kinds could be carried out under ideal conditions, and on the outskirts of the settlement there could be gardens and orchards, and further out still, but radiating from the common centre, small dairy farms and agricultural farms. Mr. Seager concluded by saying that it was time tc cease talking and get to work. The epidemic had shown what the organisation of citizens could do, and he appealed strongly for whole-hearted support of the -planning ideal. He did not propose to form a»new Association, but the many existing and powerful associations of citizens for many objects should combine and form a great committee which would have the advancement of town-planning as its object. After some discussion, and the answering of questions by Mr. Seager, Mr. W. Ensom moved, and it was carried: “That an Association be formed on the lines suggested by Mr. Seager,” On Mr. J. Longton’s motion, the meeting recommended the City Council to at once take into consideration the better housing of the poor of the city. The meeting concluded with a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Seager for his valuable and instructive address.