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inhabited by the labouring classes, and the widening of the same by
pulling down any building or otherwise, leaving such open spaces as
may be necessary to make such alleys or courts healthful. The
provisions of this Act, if carried out by the Metropolitan Board of
Works, would prove very beneficial to the health of the crowded
districts in the Metropolis; but as the working of this Act is intrusted
to the several Local Authorities, it is not likely that the Act will be
applied to any great extent.
If "Torrens' Act" were to be incorporated with the Artizans'
Dwellings Act (1875) and worked by the Metropolitan Board, such
alterations in both these Acts being made as will lessen the expense
to the ratepayers, London, in the course of a few years, would present
a totally different aspect to what it does at present, and the rate of
mortality would be greatly reduced.
It cannot be expected that the Local Boards will carry out the
provisions of "Torrens' Act," when the cost of doing so will fall
entirely on the ratepayers of the district, perhaps a small and poor
one, instead of the same being spread over the whole Metropolis, as
is the case under the provisions of the Artizans' Dwellings Act; and
so long as "Torrens' Act" is kept on the Statute Book unaltered, it will,
to a great extent, be a "dead letter." It must strike every member of
a Local Board how unjust such a proceeding would be, to charge its
ratepayers with the necessary heavy expense for such improvements as
would be for the benefit of the entire Metropolis. It is well known that
diseases which are generated in the crowded localities do not stop there,
but travel to all parts of the Metropolis, and persons living at a distance
from the places which generate infectious diseases do not escape with
impunity from the deadly effects of them. Moreover, it so happens that
the poorest districts are those in which the greatest sanitary improvements
are required, and it is just those which are the least able to
defray the cost. As all London, therefore, is benefitted by uprooting
unhealthy localities, so all London should contribute in rateable
proportion to the cost. All the powers of "Torrens' Act" should be
transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works; and, in so doing,
care must be taken not to allow compensation to be awarded for the
condemned houses on the rent which is received from the tenants.
It is well known that the poor pay a much higher rent for their
dwellings in proportion to their incomes, than is obtained from the
upper and middle classes.