56 HOUSING 



point is the adequacy of housing for agricul- 

 tural labourers and its bearing on agricultu- 

 ral depopulation. To drag in the overcrowd- 

 ing in mining villages and the reports of 

 medical officers on entirely different sections 

 of the population is to mix up another 

 problem. 



Deficient Housing. 

 It is something of a paradox that the large 

 decline in the population to be housed, which 

 has been discussed in previous chapters and is, 

 in fact, the chief count in the whole case, 

 should be accompanied by a deficiency of 

 housing accommodation for the dwindling 

 remnant. The explanation lies partly in the 

 distribution of depopulation on the one hand 

 and of deficient housing on the other. Both 

 are spoken of in summary terms as though 

 they applied everywhere alike, whereas their 

 local distribution is very irregular and there 

 is no correspondence between the two. 

 Another reason is the neglect of housing 

 during the periods of agricultural depression, 

 when all avoidable expenditure was avoided, 

 old houses were allowed to fall into dilapida- 

 tion, and new ones were not built. But the 

 chief reason is the rising standard of require- 

 ments from the social and the administrative 

 point of view. The whole standpoint has 

 changed, and conditions which once were 

 thought of no importance and passed without 



