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78
Housing.
can only have been reduced to a small extent by the 77
working-class dwellings completed during the year.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to deal with overcrowding
while the demand for houses is so acute.
What can be done, however, is to alleviate the conditions
by a re-arrangement of the rooms of each house so that
one part is not more crowded than another, and so
that sleeping accommodation is not too much restricted,
or, in other words, that undue overcrowding in bedrooms
s prevented.
Fitness of Houses.
The general standard of fitness in the houses in the
town is high. In only three small areas can the houses
be said to approach slum conditions, and these conditions
are to a slight extent due to the old construction
of the houses, but to a large extent due to the carelessness
of the tenants. Those houses considered to be unfit
for human habitation are very small in number, not
more than thirty. Then condition is due to dampness
want of through ventilation and general dilapidation,
the defects being of such a serious character that it
is not profitable for the owners to remedy them, and the
re-housing difficulties being so great that it is unwise
to order closure.
In many of the houses defective conditions have
been allowed to persist and to get worse owing to the
unwillingness of the agents and owners to expend a large
amount of money on their improvement, the high cost
of the work being the usual excuse when remedial
measures are demanded by the Inspectors. Much good
work, however, has been done during the year, in spite