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fault of the municipality. Our rents are so high that the places rebuilt do not come within the purview of the poor unskilled worker or general laborer, and, therefore, we are accommodating people to-day who could find not better but other accommodation elsewhere, and the poor people are entirely neglected. That is our own experience.

What is Needed: Lower Interest.

I maintain that, in the first place, the Government should give us facilities for borrowing money at a lower rate than 2 or 3 per cent., as the case may be. You can find money to carry on the war. Is not this question as important to you as the war in South Africa, if not of more importance? Where do you get your soldiers and sailors from? Why, you get them from the ranks of the workers. Aye, and what is more important still, where do you get the industrial workers from who produce the wealth without which this and no other Government could go on? From the workers. That being so, you have a right to protect them in every shape and form, and to find them better accommodation than we are able to find them now. Then we should have opportunities for borrowing money at the lowest rate possible. Instead of having to repay the money in sixty years the time should be extended to a hundred years. Our property is not slum property. I was a member of the Housing Committee myself for five years. I inspected some of the houses we built. We had timber enough in the roof to frame a ship. Our houses will last 200 or 300 years. At the end of sixty years all the money we have expended will have come back ten times over, and that will be a great relief to the ratepayers of that period.

Extending the Period of Loans.

If our houses are going to stand 200 or 300 years, surely it is no hardship to extend the period for the repayment of the loan from sixty to a hundred years. If that was done the County Council could do more in the way of providing house accommodation than they are able to do at present. It is no use saying we have no opportunities of building in London. We have 14,000 acres of land to-day in London which could be built on provided the County Council had better opportunities than now. We have a little patch here and there and all over the place, and if we cannot build it is because the patches are so small that the rents would be three times as costly as are charged to the tenants now. You compel the County Council to charge such rents. The poor tenant has to pay rent not only for the cost of the land on which the house is built but for the building also. If all London is going to reap the benefit of our housing policy in fifty years time, then all London ought to pay for it, and the land ought to be an asset instead of being, as now, a charge on the building. There is another difficulty the London Council has to contend with.

The Wily Landowner.

If the owner comes to know that it is the County Council who are going to purchase, what does he do? He doubles his price in a moment. The result is that we have to negotiate through some outside gentleman in order that the owner of the land should not know that it is the County Council who are anxious to purchase. We had a case only last year where negotiations were going on for some land. A question was asked in the Council about it, and from the answer it leaked out that the County Council were negotiating for the purchase, and up jumped the price at once, with the result that the Council had to drop the negotiations. We have not only to pay the value of the land, but we have to pay an extra ten per cent. over the value. [Cries of "No."] Yes, Sir, we have to pay ten per cent. for compulsory purchase under Part III. I am referring to Part III.

Taxation of Vacant Land.

All vacant land should be taxed, and if that were done the owner would then be very ready to sell his land for the first offer he could get for it, whereas now, through vacant land being untaxed, he can keep it as long as he likes. It becomes the more valuable the more years he keeps it, and the result is that he gets a price for the land that he really is not entitled to. The slum-owner, as I have already stated, under the existing law is allowed full compensation. Take Boundary Street-one of the worst in London, where the death-rate was double that of any other part of London. It was well known that the owners of property in that area were prepared to sell the property for a bagatelle, but the moment they found the County Council was going to purchase they demanded their full pound of flesh-they demanded the full price for their rotten bricks and mortar. A few weeks back an inquest was held on the death of an infant child which took place at 10 Windsor Court, Strand. The father admitted that three children had died in his two-roomed house, and that an inquest had been held on each one.

Prosecution for Slum-Owners.

The law allows the landlord to go scot-free, it allows the slumowner to go free, while it allows the local authority to prosecute the fishmonger for selling bad fish, and the butcher for selling bad meat, and all tradesmen for selling adulterated food. If it is right to prosecute the fishmonger and the butcher, the same thing should be done in the case of the slum-owner who is responsible for the deaths of little infants in his rotten slums. I am fortified in this opinion by a speech delivered by the right hon. gentleman the Secretary for the Colonies. He once stated in a speech that the law should make it an offence punishable by a heavy fine to let property not fit for human habitation, but instead of having such a law as that to-day

we are compelled by the law to compensate the owners. Mr. Blashill, for twenty years chief architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who has vast experience and knowledge on this subject, states that at least the slum-owner should be compelled to pull down and rebuild at his own expense without any compensation at all. With reference to your Bill, he says it is not worth the paper it is written on so far as solving this problem goes.

Something Must be Done.

I maintain that it is a very serious problem, and I also admit that it is a very difficult one. At the same time I consider that it is a problem that deserves, above all things and all parties, the serious consideration of Her Majesty's Government. We know that working men and women are stunted in their growth, that consumption is on the increase, and that disease and death lurk in every corner and every street where there is slum property.

Peers on the Problem.

Lord Rosebery, in a speech, stated: "The facts that are presented to us are daily coming to the minds of the people, and, they hope, ultimately to our statesmen." Lord Carrington stated that he welcomed the fact that the working men were waking up on this question, and that it was unjust to them to have to pay such excessive rents. Lord Tweedmouth stated that London had grown according to the sweet will of the ground landlord and the jerrybuilder, and London was now faced with a problem infinite in its magnitude and most difficult to deal with. Above all, the Prince of Wales, in opening the Boundary Street area in March last, said: "There is no question at the present time of greater social importance than that of the housing of the working classes." I hope Parliament may be able to deal with the case of those who are responsible for insanitary property. In dealing with this matter it is not my desire to deal with it from a party point of view, or as a means of attacking Her Majesty's Government. I admit I have referred to speeches delivered by gentlemen belonging to this side of the House: if I have not referred to speeches delivered by gentlemen on the other side of the House the fault is not mine but theirs, because they have made no speeches on the subject. I know that the Government have a very difficult task on their hands in the war in the Transvaal, but, at the same time, they have no Bil before the House of Commons of any magnitude whatsoever, and I fully expected, when the housing of the working casses was referred to in the Speech from the Throne we should have a Bill which would deal with the problem from its very roots. Instead of that we get

A Paltry Bill,

which, so far as we in London are concerned, consists of one clause, enabling the London County Council to purchase land outside its

Own area. This measure will no more solve the problem than a glass of water will float one of Her Majesty's rams-which, for the benefit of those who have had no experience of shipbuilding, I may explain is a warship. The longer the problem exists the more difficult will the solution become. I trust the Government are serious in this matter. After all, the working classes do not care a rap whether it is a Conservative Government or a Liberal Government which deals with the question; they only require that it shall be dealt with effectually and practically. At the last Trade Union Congress, representing 1,250,000 working men, a very important resolution on this matter was passed, and a mass meeting was held in Hyde Park last autumn on the subject, at which something like 100,000 men were present. It is in their name, not in my own, that I speak on this subject, and I voice their grievances and desires that something practical should be done to remedy and solve this important problem.

The following is the text of the amending Act as passed on th August, 1900 :—

An Act to amend Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.

1.-Where any council, other than a rural district council, have adopted Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890 (in this Act referred to as "the principal Act"), they may, for supplying the needs of their district, establish or acquire lodging houses for the working classes under that Part outside their district.

2. (1) The council of any rural district may, with the consent of the county council, adopt Part III. of the principal Act, either for the whole of their district or for any contributory place or places therein.

(2) In giving or withholding their consent under this section, the county council shall have regard

(a) to the area for which it is proposed to adopt the said Part; and

(b) to the necessity for accommodation for the housing of the working classes in that area; and

(c) to the probability of such accommodation being provided without the adoption of the said Part; and

(d) to the liability which will be incurred by the rates, and to the question whether it is, under all the circumstances, prudent for the district council to adopt the said Part.

(3) The principal Act is hereby repealed to the extent mentioned in the third column of the schedule to this Act.

3. (1) Any expenses incurred by the council of a metropolitan borough under Part III. of the principal Act, whether within or without the borough, shall be defrayed as part of the ordinary expenses of the council, and in that Act the expressions "district," "local authority," and "local rate" shall, for the purposes of Part III. of the Act, include a metropolitan borough, the council of the borough, and the general rate of the borough.

(2) Where the council of a metropolitan borough adopt Part III. of the principal Act, the power of the council to borrow for the purposes of that Part shall be exercise able in the like manner and subject to the like conditions as the power of the council to borrow for the purposes of Part II. of that Act.

4. Where land acquired by a council under Part III. of the principal Act is appropriated for the purpose of re-housing persons displaced by the council under the powers of any other Part of that Act or of any other enactment, the receipts and expenditure in respect of that land (including all costs in respect of the acquisition and laying out of the land), and of any buildings erected thereon, may be treated as receipts and expenditure under that Part or enactment, but shall be accounted for under a separate head.

5.-(1) The local authority, if not a rural district council, with the consent of the Local Government Board, and if a rural district council with the consent of the county counci., may lease any land acquired by them under and for the purposes of Part III of the principal Act to any lessee for the purpose and under the condition that the lessee will carry the Act into execution by building and maintaining on the land lodging houses within the meaning of the Act; and the local authority shall insert in every lease all necessary provisions for insuring the user of the land and buildings for lodging houses within the meaning of the Act, and in particular the local authority shall insert in any lease provisions binding the lessee to build on the land as in the lease prescribed, and to maintain and repair the buildings, and securing the use of the buildings exclusively as lodging houses within the meaning of the Act, and prohibiting any addition to or alteration of the character of the buildings without the consent of the local authority; and also a provision for the re-entry of the local authority on the land on the breach of any of the terms of the lease; and every deed or instrument of demise of the land or buildings shall be endorsed with notice of this subsection.

Provided that in the case of a council in London, the consent of a Secretary of State shall be substituted for the consent of the Local Government Board.

(2) Sections sixty-one and sixty-two of the principal Act shall not extend to any lodging house to which this section applies.

6. The council of any administrative county, if a parish council shall resolve that a rural district council ought to have taken steps for the adoption of Part III. of the principal Act, or to have exercised their powers under that Part, and have failed to do so, may, if satisfied after due inquiry that the district council have so failed, resolve that the powers of the district council for the purposes of that Part shall be transferred to the county council with respect to the parish, and they shall be transferred accordingly, and the resolution shall, if necessary, have effect as an adoption of that Part by the district council, and, subject to the provisions of this Act, section sixty-three of the Local Government Act, 1894, shall apply as if the powers had been transferred unde: that Act.

7.-Where land is acquired under Part III. of the principal Act otherwise than by agreement, any question as to the amount of compensation which may arise shall in default of agreement be determined by a single arbitrator to be appointed and removable by the Local Government Board, and subsections (5), (7), (8), (10), and (11) of section forty-one of the Act shall apply as in the case of an arbitration under that section. Provided that in the case of a council in London a Secretary of State shall be substituted for the Local Government Board.

8.-(1) This Act may be cited as the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1900, and the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, 1890 to 1894, and this Act may be cited together as the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, 1890 to 1950.

(2) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland.

SCHEDULE (THIRD COLUMN),

Parts of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, repealed :—The proviso to section fifty-four. Section fifty-five. In section sixty-five, the words from "and save where" to "hear such expenses," and the words "at the time of the publication of the certificate and "who publish the same."

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