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78
Different municipalities have different methods in the
expenditure of public money in the interests of general
health and some get much more value for the money than
others.
There is so much to be learned from Glasgow of utility
to this Borough that no apology is necessary in laying
stress in this report on what has been done and what is
doing in Glasgow.
Housing of the Working Classes—Clearing of Insanitary
Areas.
It is certain Glasgow could not have carried out large
and important clearing and re-housing schemes under an
Act so obscure in phraseology, so complicated in procedure,
and so expensive in operation as the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890; a simpler, more economical and concise
instrument was acquired so long ago as 1866 in the Glasgow
Improvement Act. Under this Act a City Improvement
Trust was established, with a borrowing power of £1,250,000,
afterwards increased to £1,500,000 for the purpose of
clearing certain large areas, re-building with wider streets,
and also for establishing a Public Park. It is instructive to
those in this Borough who hold such decided opinions on
the taxation of ground values, that the assessments to meet
this large expenditure fell wholly on the occupiers, and that
when an attempt was made in 1892 to shift a portion of the
burden on to the owners, Parliament refused to sanction
such an arrangement. Armed with the extensive powers of
the Act, the Trustees bought large quantities of land in
the different scheduled parts of the City and cleared them
of dilapidated and insanitary dwellings. The Trustees
started with the idea they would be able to sell such
cleared areas to private persons under agreement to build
certain types of habitations, at a price which would largely
recoup the ratepayers for the initial expense. This idea
was only partially realised; the disastrous commercial
crisis of 1878 culminating in the failure of the City of
Glasgow Bank, produced a complete collapse in the property
market, which for a long time arrested and interfered with
the full development of the schemes.