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143
2ndly.—That the house or premises are in such a condition as to be a
nuisance or in a state of defective sanitation,or are not in
reasonably good repair; or
3rdly.—Thatthe house or premises are unfit, and not reasonably capable
of being made fit for human habitation ;
and if the arbitrator is satisfied by such evidence, then the compensation—
(a) Shall in the first case, so far as it is based on rental, be
based on the rental which would have been obtainable
if the house or premises were occupied for legal purposes,
and only by the number of persons which the house or
premises were, under all the circumstances of the case,
fitted to accommodate, without such overcrowding as is
dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates; and
(b) Shall, in the second case, be the amount estimated as the
value of the house or premises if the nuisance had been
abated, or if they had been put into a sanitary condition,
or into reasonably good repair, after deducting the
estimated expense of abating the nuisance, or putting
them into such condition or repair, as the case may be;
and
(c) Shall, in the third case, be the value of the land and of
materials of the buildings thereon.
Now, if the half of what was said in the course of the debate,
as to the condition of the houses, were true, it might well be
believed that most of them "are unfit, and not reasonably capable
of being made fit, for human habitation," in which case the compensation
payable should be "the value of the land and of the
materials of the buildings thereon." But the Committee have no
power to limit the amount of compensation to be paid to the
owners. That is a matter which rests with the arbitrator.
The large expenditure contemplated, provides only for
acquiring and clearing the land and making the new streets.
The land will he re-sold, for the erection thereon of improved
dwellings, at an estimated loss of £300,000, or £20,000 per acre.
It is, of course, expected, or at any rate hoped, by the Committee,
that the poor persons evicted in carrying out the scheme will be
re-housed in the new dwellings. In the past, however, when
similar schemes were carried out by the Metropolitan Board of