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5
SECTION A.
STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
(i) General Statistics.
Area in Acres 1,390
Population 1938 (Registrar General) 39,790
Number of inhabited houses approx 10,150
Rateable Value—General Rate £512,684
Sum represented by Penny Rate £2,000
Amount of Poor Law Relief £6,183
(ii) Social Conditions.
The Borough is still residential in character over the
greater part of the area, but many industrial businesses
have developed, particularly within recent years. The chief
industries in the town are general engineering, motor engineering
and construction, aircraft manufacture, building,
paint manufacture, works of construction, a brewery, and
distributive services. There are, in addition, a few minor
industries such as knitted goods, optical accessories, wireless
goods, etc., which in the aggregate afford employment
to a good number of work-people.
I am indebted to the Manager of the Ministry of
Labour Employment Exchange, Kingston-upon-Thames for
the following information:—At the beginning of 1938
there was a fair amount of unemployment due to slackness
in the building trade. Owing to the fact that Kingstonupon-Thames
and districts in the immediate vicinity have
become built-up areas, operatives in the local building industry
have had to rely to a large extent on the rebuilding
of business premises, and the building of factories, etc.
This difficulty persisted all through the year, and the summer
of 1938 particularly was a bad one for all classes of
building trade workmen. There was also a considerable
amount of unemployment among painters, due it is thought,
to a reaction from the Coronation year (1937) when business
in house decoration was very brisk. Employment was
good for all other trades during the year.