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a poor man with consumption that he must winter in Egypt;
and it is equally useless to tell many a mother that she must
go away for a month's holiday, or that she must send her baby
to convalesce in the country, or that her boy or girl at school
must have six weeks' rest and good food in country air. A few
may be able to pay perhaps half or a quarter of the cost of such
an essential holiday, but there are many who can find only a few
shillings or nothing at all; and in these cases one feels really
reluctant even to give the advice. I should like to think that, in
the future, Hornsey will have its own convalescent home; for I
am certain that it would do a vast amount of good and give health
to just those women and children who cannot themselves afford
to buy it.
At present voluntary effort does something to provide convalescent
home cure for babies who need it, and the Voluntary
Workers at our centres find year by year enough money to
reserve two cots in convalescent homes. This is better than
nothing, but it is far from being enough,
HOUSING.
The Borough of Hornsey is composed mainly of good-class
houses; but here and there are some small collections of dilapidated
house property. In my opinion there are no areas which,
without the misuse of words, could properly be called slums;
for a slum area is essentially one in which persons are overcrowded
in grossly insanitary buildings.
It is, however, true that there are a few houses which,
under pre-war standards, would be closed as not being "in all
respects reasonably fit for human habitation." Having regard,
however, to the post-war shortage of alternative accommodation
these houses are occupied. The rents of these houses are low,
and they are occupied, in some cases, by a bad type of tenant.
Many of the occupiers take in one or more lodgers, or sub-let
one or more rooms for the purpose of augmenting their incomes.
The Hornsey Town Council is preparing to build some
houses for the working classes; and it is undeniable that these
houses will very readily be taken by decent people, many of
whom are newly-married couples, and by persons who for many