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190
result of their working is shewn by the comparatively satisfactory
condition of the town." But the general death-rate of Leeds, in
1884, was 23.l per 1,000, as compared with 20.3 in London, and
the zymotic death rate was 4.8 as against 3.3.
At Birmingham, only 210 houses are registered. At Bristol,
where the section, though nominally in force, is not in operation,
the regulations are "held in terrorem over the people concerned,"
who are used to be "threatened with registration, if they do not
abate overcrowding, with good effect," an unjustifiable practice, not
calculated to popularise the law or to attain the object Parliament
had in view in passing the Act.
Perhaps no scheme could be devised better calculated to improve
the housing of the very poorest classes than that which is in
operation at Glasgow, and to which the present Home Secretary
refers with approval, in a "Memorandum" in the supplementary
report (page 66). There "the lowest class of the population, the
waifs and strays, too poor or too improvident to be able to rent
houses, are provided with furnished airy lodging houses, with large
day rooms, lavatories, &c., where each has a separate clean bed
at the charge (including use of cooking range and utensils) of
3½d. per night, and these institutions are so managed as to be
self-supporting, including 5 per cent interest on the capital."
This would be an improvement upon the system in vogue in
England under the Common Lodging Houses Acts administered
by the Police, and which I remember to have heard Lord Shaftesbury
commend as the perfection of sanitaiy administration applied
to the bousing of the poor.
On no point are the Commissioners more emphatic than with
reference to the failure of Local Authorities to put existing
legislation into force. They admit that "legislation is capable of
amendment," but for what is wrong they blame "failure in
administration." The legislation referred to is comprised in—
The Labouring Classes' Lodging Houses Act (Lord Shaftesbury's
Act).
The Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act (Torrens's Acts).
The Artizans' and Labourers' Improvement Acts (Cross's Acts).