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12
house. As regards the other four, summonses were issued and
Orders made to close on the 31st of May. It was, however, some
considerable time after this that the premises were finally closed,
and not until several of the tenants had been summoned to Worship
Street. Twelve summonses were issued, and several fines imposed
before the Orders to close were completely enforced. These cases
serve to further illustrate the difficulty experienced by Sanitary
Authorities in getting insanitary property actually vacated, even
when magistrates' Orders have been made, as well as the hardships
that have to be inflicted on the poor wretched tenants, who are
forced by circumstances to occupy such miserable places, and to
which they cling with the desperation of despair, simply because
there is nothing else provided within their means. No one apparently
cares to house the poorest class of workers, and it is most
remarkable that whilst all classes of opinion have for months, aye
for years, been holding Meetings, Conferences, and passing endless
resolutions, and have all apparently agreed on the point that something
must be done, yet the hard solid fact remains that for the
thousands of casual workers, dock-labourers and others, of what
may be termed the class of worker earning the lowest and most
precarious wage, the housing accommodation is becoming year by
year more restricted, and ever farther beyond their miserable means.
Factory and Trade Premises, Street Improvements, Housing
Schemes (as yet carried out), and other similar undertakings all
tend to further press the slum dweller farther under foot, and to
place anything in the shape of decent accommodation further
beyond his means, by curtailing existing accommodation of the
class he requires, and so enhancing the already famine prices he has
too long been compelled to pay.
Probably Sanitary Officers see more of the evils caused by overcrowding,
and what is termed the Housing Question, than any
other body of men, and to them, at all events, it passes comprehension
that in a question of this importance, and where every
shade of opinion appears to be as one, the Legislature has not yet
provided some efficient, speedy and simple machinery for dealing
with the matter.