Welsh Journals

conditions of living must become specially unhealthy. And it is noteworthy that the people who have become accustomed to these conditions often appear callous and indifferent towards them." In George Street and Annie Street there are 10 back-to-back houses, each of which consists of a living-room and pantry (which is also used for storing coal) on the ground floor, and two rooms on the upper floor. They are without exception, in a very bad state of repair. The bedrooms are small and generally without through ventilation. The houses are dirty and in some the walls of the bedrooms are covered with red stains, the remains of squashed bugs. Many cases of overcrowding were met with in this group of houses, the average number living in each house being six. In one house there were two families in another, in addition to a family of six, there was a lodger in a third house two girls, 17 and 10 years of age, and two boys, 13 and 3 years of age, occupied the same bed while in a fourth house, five persons 19, 15, 11, 10, and 5 years of age, occupied the same bedroom. In one of these houses there was a woman ill with consumption." (Special Report to the Local Government Board on Blaen- avon, 1911. Such descriptions as the above-typical of many another industrial district in Wales-give some indication of the appall- ing condition of many of the homes of the people. Disease, destitution, intemper- ance, immorality are the consequences and, in turn, causes in a vicious circle of degradation. In the more recently devel- oped districts, where the houses have hardly had time to degenerate into actual slums, a new evil has grown up, the baneful effect of which is incalculable. The char- acteristic of urban cottage building is perhaps its deadly monotony, and mono- tony here, as in other things, is the devil's best ally. The long row of drab brick cottages, the wide barren street with gloomy and dingy back yards in endless repetition, make the heart sick. Low as the housing standard is in the industrial districts, one is again faced by the fact that the economic supply is far behind the demand. It is estimated that in the mining counties of South Wales there is an actual shortage of over 20,000 houses, and that in the metropolis of Cardiff over 14,000 families are compelled to live two families in a house. Notwithstanding this urgent need, private enterprise has slack- ened, and in many parts is almost at a standstill. Low wages, and the high cost of building are not the only or sufficient reasons. In addition to the difficulties that apply to rural cottage building, the land available in many industrial districts is only obtainable at extortionate prices. The requirements of obsolete Bye-laws, estate and solicitors' fees add to the develop- ment charges. The speculative cottage builder, already handicapped by high rates of interest and cost of material, is thus compelled, if he builds at all, to crowd as many houses as possible on the land he has purchased in order to retain a profit. In urban, as well as in rural housing we appear to be driven for a solution either to the strong but cumbrous machinery of the State, to Local Authorities, or the sub- sidising of approved private enterprise. At this stage, and before the present great shortage of houses is supplied, it cannot be too strongly and too often emphasised that what is wanted is not only more houses, but better houses, both in architectural character and grouping that there should be an end of the haphazard development of our villages and towns, where more build- ing has hitherto only meant more monotony, more disfigurement, more wastage: that the powers of the Town-planning Act, de- signed and available for this purpose (but until now practically a dead letter in Wales) should be put into force by every Local Authority: that gardens, and adequate open space should be insisted upon from the outset. Rarely has there been such an opportunity for social reformers and the Churches to get to grips with one of the deepest social evils of our time.