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9
Parents of families find the bringing-up of children a matter attended with very considerable
difficulty, and which causes in many instances grave concern. Traffic renders
streets unsuitable for playgrounds until after seven in the evening, but school must be
attended. Infants in arms lack sunshine unless parents can reach the few open spaces which
the Corporation has ensured shall be retained as airing grounds. Residence at the top of
three or four stories involves an expenditure of physical labour which is unknown to those
more favourably placed. The amenities of residences are restricted and housewives have
indeed to be exceedingly patient. Under the best conditions these difficulties exist in greater
or less degree ; in the worst conditions the circumstances are deplorable.
The Corporation is aware that many of the buildings which in early Victorian days were
regarded as handsome and adequate structures are to-day sub-let into rooms and are often
located in dark corners, dominated within a few feet by larger and higher buildings. There
are few natures which can exist under such depressing circumstances and still maintain either
a full measure of health or a satisfactory outlook on life. The woodwork of these buildings
is decaying and the fabric is beyond satisfactory or economic repair. During the last five
years it is a source of satisfaction to be able to report that such progress has been made
that one may reasonably expect, before the lapse of another five years, these blots on the
City will be materially reduced, even if the Corporation has not entirely succeeded in
making them non-existent.
Two areas, Hutchison Street and Vine Street, have been purchased and expensive
temporisations are being effected, but greater hope rests on the fact that an area of land has
been purchased at Shepherdess Walk, which is outside the City area, on which to erect
suitable buildings, and further, that a portion of the Hutchison Street area has been dedicated
as land on which also similar dwellings shall be provided. Plans have been prepared
and accepted in respect of both sites, and building operations will soon commence, at any
rate in Shepherdess Walk. What will then happen? The residents in the oldest and most
unfit houses in the City will be given the opportunity of removing to available premises
in Shepherdess Walk and their vacated premises will not be allowed to be re-occupied.
Accommodation on this site will also be devoted to housing those persons who will require to be
dehoused on the Hutchison Street site to enable the construction of new houses to proceed
on the site of those which will be demolished on the removal of these tenants, and also to
house the remaining few persons left in the Vine Street area. At the present moment it is
not possible to take any decisive steps since the removal of a family even from an insanitary
house simply means the overcrowding of an existing house and it is not until the new provision
at Shepherdess Walk and later in the Hutchison Street area, is available that progress
can be made. There will be 104 tenements available at Shepherdess Walk comprising a
total of 342 rooms. No purchase price can yet be stated and it may be that this item may
require to go to arbitration. The Court of Common Council* have, however, approved the
expenditure of £95,000 on the erection of the above provision and the 104 flats will comprise
six five-roomed flats, forty four-roomed flats, thirty-six three-roomed flats and twenty-two
two-roomed flats, each flat possessing the usual offices, scullery, bathroom and W.C.
The number of tenements which will be provided at Hutchison Street is undetermined
but draft plans have been approved by the Ministry, in which it is hoped that 250 persons
will be housed. This represents an important first stage in the direction of improving the
housing of the remaining City residents.
The above proposals affect, of course, the poorer type of City resident and I have mentioned
the disadvantages under which the caretaker type of resident exists. The smaller
shopkeeper is likewise severely handicapped. The value of the small place which he occupies
is so great that accommodation resolves itself into the irreducible minimum and the business
often encroaches on the domestic accommodation. One finds that passages and even livingrooms
are turned into store-rooms, all to the disadvantage of the family. These encroachments,
added to the unsuitability of position which is usually a feature of a shop, increase
the domestic cares of the small shopkeeper.
The conditions above recited indicate that the poorer residents referred to cannot be
provided for by private enterprise and the responsibility devolves upon the Corporation.
The provision cannot be established as a commercial undertaking and the Corporation
recognises that a loss will be incurred at the rents which can reasonably be charged to these
occupants. I do not suppose the Corporation regards this as a hardship or makes a virtue of it,
but accepts it simply as a public duty. Businesses which are successful and which require
a number of persons to reside in the City area to maintain and continue that success, must
be prepared to contribute to the City rates to a fair and reasonable extent.
* Tenders for the erection of these dwellings have been obtained and are now (Mar. 30/26) under consideration by the Court of Common Council.