View report page

134
2; and other occupations, one each. One lather was employed
by a London Borough Council. Three fathers were dead, one
was in an asylum, and one had deserted his wife. Thirty-six out
of the fifty were in casual employment, 15 had been idle for some
considerable time.
The reasons given for the casual nature of the work and for
unemployment were "Work slack," 10; "Unable to get work,"
8; "A strike on," 5; illness, 3; and dismissal, one case.
Five of the mothers were homeworkers, tailoring, or making
artilicial flowers or cardboard boxes. Thirteen mothers worked
in a factory or workshop.
In 19 families the children were working and were the chief
source of support—the wages of the children ranged from 2s. 6d.
(a domestic servant) to 8s. 6d. per week.
Twenty-six families, comprising 141 persons, lived and slept
in one room—the rents ranged from 2s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. per week.
One such single room at 4s. 6d. per week was occupied by nine
persons—the father, mother, girls 14, 9, 5 and 1½ years, and
boys 11, 7 and 3 years. There were two beds. The content of
the room was 990 cubic feet, which was too small by 1,610 cubic
feet.
Twenty-two of the families occupied two-roomed tenements at
rents ranging from 4s. to 7s. 6d. per week. Two families
occupied three-roomed tenements; the rents were 7s. 6d. and
lis. 6d. respectively. Some of the tenements were remarkably
small—thus a two-roomed tenement contained only 800 cubic
feet and was occupied by nine persons.
In all the households there was evidence of poverty, in onethird
of the whole number, evidence of destitution. One of the
families had removed five times during the preceding 12 months,
two families four times, two families three times. Twenty-three
families had resided in their present addresses for 12 months.