View report page

138
some of the public houses, it would probably not be sufficiently remunerative
for the owners to retain the licenses. It is quite evident that in
many families the money which should provide food and clothing for the
children, and ordinary comforts in the home is spent in drink, which is
to a considerable extent the cause of much of the degeneracy to be
found in certain parts of the district.
The lines of action on which the Council might act in the present
condition of St. Jolm's Ward are briefly:—
(1) To continue the policy of—
(a) Systematic inspection and strict enforcement of legal
requirements in tenement houses.
(b) The closure of insanitary houses which cannot be made
habitable or which the owners decline to make so.
(2) To consider the desirability of—
(a) Acquiring additional sites on which buildings for working
people can be erected.
(b) Acquiring existing houses in which improvements could
be effected so as to render them suitable for use as
tenement dwellings.
(3) To represent to Parliament, the Local Government Board, and
the County Council the need of further powers—
(a) To compel owners of houses intended to be let in
ments to provide suitable accommodation for the tenants.
(b) To give greater elasticity to the by-laws for houses let in
lodgings or occupied by persons of more than one family,
so that in existing houses of that class the standard of
cubic space may be varied according to the character of
the house and the provision made for the various families.
(4) To urge upon the County Council and the Syndicate the need
for proceeding rapidly with the reconstruction of the areas being
dealt with under their Acts.
In addition there is much scope in streets like Chadwick Street and
Tufton Street for various agencies to effect improvements and to raise
the tone of the people, but so long as parts are infested with "undesirables"
efforts to do so must be rendered almost futile. The firststeps
should be to get rid of the prostitutes and loafers who inhabit
certain parts, and to secure a. reduction in the number of licensed
premises, especially in parts where intemperance is common.
I have the honour to be,
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
Your Obedient Servant,
June, 1908. FRANCIS J. ALLAN.