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housing—slum clearance.
The question of slum clearance has been one of continuous consideration during 1934.
There is no single area of houses for the working classes remaining; the Hutchison
and Vine Street demolitions removed the last housing areas. There is, however, a number
of dwellings dotted here and there which, were they aggregated, would constitute an area
approximating to slum.
By Section 62 of the Housing Act of 1930, sanitary defect in a house includes lack of
air space or of ventilation, darkness, dampness, absence of ready accessibility of water supply
or sanitary accommodation or of other conveniences and inadequate paving or drainage
of courts, yards or passages.
Part II of the Act deals with the repair or demolition of insanitary houses and requires
action where the dwelling-house is in any respect unfit for human habitation, and lays down
that, in determining whether a dwelling-house can be rendered fit at a reasonable expense,
regard shall be had to the relative cost of rendering it fit and of the value of the house on
completion of the work.
In recommending to the Public Health Committee that Part II of the Act is the proper
one on which to proceed, the question whether Section 17 (as to houses which can be rendered
fit) or Section 19 (as to houses which are not capable of being rendered fit at reasonable
expense) should be applied, arises, and naturally divides the houses into two classes ;
those for demolition or an undertaking as to user from the owner under Section 19, and those
for re-conditioning under Section 17.
Decision on the unfitness of a house for habitation is difficult, especially as to degree
of unfitness, whether one glaring defect overbears the presence of minor amenities, or
whether a number of lesser defects constitute the unfitness. The scattered units dealt with
present a great variety in type and user.
As to preliminary procedure; in the case of unfit houses, incapable of being rendered
fit at a reasonable expense, if the Public Health Committee is satisfied of the fact, notice
is served on the interested parties, stating the time and place at which the condition of the
house, any offer with respect to the carrying out of works, or the future user of the house,
will be considered by the Local Authority. The Authority may accept undertakings by
the owners in regard to these matters.
In the case of dwelling-houses in any respect unfit for human habitation and capable
of being rendered fit at reasonable expense, if the Public Health Committee is satisfied of
the fact, notice is served requiring the execution of the works specified within a reasonable
time, stating that those works will render the house fit for habitation.
It appears that many persons, if displaced, would find the rents of new quarters a difficulty
unless adjusted to circumstances, since in many of the inferior tenancies very low rents
obtain ; it would be bad health policy to re-house at the expense of adequate food, the latter
having the first claim on a small income.
the bed bug.
During 1934, a Memorandum on the Bed Bug and how to deal with it was issued by
the Ministry of Health, and summarises our present knowledge in this matter.
As to life, appearance and habits, bed bugs feed only on blood and seldom more than
once a week, and are capable of fasting for six months, being then thin and transparent.
They possibly travel from one house to the next in search of food. They can live for four
years, and feed on mice, rats, sparrows, as well as on the human being.
The eggs are by collared and lidded, and are cemented to the surface on which
they are laid. Two to three eggs a day are laid during the lifetime of the adult female,
and normally hatch in one to three weeks from the time of laying.
The young can live without food for two or three months, but feed at once on hatching
out, if food is available. On an average, ten weeks elapse before the young becomes adult,
but circumstances, such as scarcity of food, can prolong this period of five moultings to
a year or more.
The presence of bugs in numbers can be detected by smell.
The sites of infestation are all crevices or folds in walls, woodwork, paper, plaster,
upholstery, picture frames, beds, chairs, curtains, bunks and boxes.