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151
workmen's towns a little way out of London, where land is cheap;
a plan which, with a cheap service of trains, should be practicable,
as indeed has been partly shewn already, at page 146. The
Committee hit a distinct blot in sanitary administration,
in reference to the paucity of Sanitary Inspectors; and recommend,
what we try to carry out, regular inspections of working-class
dwellings: they also recommend, what I have for years
been trying to bring about, viz., an uniform code of regulations
for houses let in lodgings, for the whole Metropolis. The subject
(2) "further and better accommodation for the working classes,"
is fully treated under headings dealing with (a) re-housing of
persons displaced by clearances and improvements; (b) provision
to meet the increase of the population, which involves the
question of increased railway travelling facilities; and (c) the
better housing of the poorest classes, including those who use
common lodging-houses—matters with.which the local Sanitary
Authorities have no power to deal, but in regard to which the
Committee make recommendations; the sub-section (c) being
referred to under the headings: (i.) unfurnished tenements of an
inferior description, and small cottage dwellings; (ii.) furnished
tenements or lodgings; and (iii.) common lodging-houses.
Suggestions are made indicating, inter alia, approval of the
"ticketing" system, in relation to the lowest class of lodginghouses,
in vogue at Glasgow; but the only practical recommendation
made is that already referred to, for the erection of a
model common lodging-house in St. Giles's district. The information
with respect to the municipal common lodging-houses at
Glasgow, obtained by the Committee during their visit, is at once
full, interesting, and encouraging to the experiment now about to
be tried, and which in my Annual Report for 1889 (page
132), I ventured to advocate. The Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, which comprehends Shaftesbury's and Cross's
Acts, will enable the Council to give a fair trial to the system,
which seems to me to afford the best prospect of bringing about a
practical solution of one of the difficult questions dealt with in
the able report of the Committee.