326 LAW AND JUSTICE 



improvement and enlargement of such dwellings thereon. The dwellings are not to 

 exceed 100 in capital value, and may be let on a weekly tenancy or lease or sold, the 

 purchase money in that case to be partly equal instalments spread over 25 years. The 

 Act is administered by a superintendent acting under the authority of the Minister of 

 Labour, and for each land district there is established a board of control. 



Western Australia has also been passing an Act to enable workers of limited means 

 to provide themselves with homes by state advances. 



Closely associated with workers' dwellings is the town planning movement. Narrow 

 streets and crooked alleys are a damnosa haereditas in Europe from the walled town of the 

 Middle Ages, with no room to expand. The general idea of the movement is to safe- 

 guard the inhabitants of towns from being pent up in overcrowded, sunless and insani- 

 tary areas, and it is significant of the sense of the importance of healthy surroundings 

 that the movement has spread with extraordinary rapidity. Italy led the way, and 

 has been followed by Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, the Transvaal, the Orange River 

 Colony, Southern Nigeria and Great Britain. In Germany the Act Contemplates the 

 remodelling of cities already in existence. This is not so with the English Act, except so 

 far as it may be said to apply to areas condemned as unfit for human habitation. Anoth- 

 er characteristic of the English Act is that it provides for compensation being paid to 

 any person whose property is injuriously affected by a town planning scheme; and when 

 the scheme enhances the value of property the local authority may recover half such 

 increased value. The subject will be found fully discussed in two articles contributed to 

 the Journal of Comparative Legislation (Nos. xxiv and xxv) by Mr. R. E. Willcocks. 

 A Town Planning Conference was held in October 1911 under the auspices of the Royal 

 Institute of British Architects, and the results are published in a volume of Transactions 

 full of valuable information on the subject. British Columbia has been enacting sani- 

 tary regulations for lumber camps, mining camps, saw mills, railway construction camps, 

 and other places of labour, to prevent nuisances and the outbreak of disease. 



Queensland has passed an Act in very stringent terms against adulteration or false 

 descriptions of food or drugs. All packages must be labelled with the description, weight 

 and contents of the food and the name and address of the maker. All milk sellers must 

 have licences. Precautions are taken that only pure beer shall be sold. New Brunswick 

 has also legislated against adulteration. 



An International Liquor Conference was held at Brussels in 1911, to secure united 

 action by the Powers as to the supply of drink to natives. Unfortunately no agreement 

 was reached, but pending such agreement the British Secretary of State for the Colonies 

 has directed that distilling apparatus is not to be imported into the West African colonies 

 and the zone of prohibition in Nigeria has been extended 3000 square miles. Illicit 

 stills have been suppressed in Ceylon. The duty on imported spirits has been raised 

 to the very high point of 53. 6d. per gallon in Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Southern 

 Nigeria. Heavy duties have also been imposed in Hong-Kong and in Malaya. 



In all parts of the United States temperance legislation has been making great strides. 

 Newfoundland, British Columbia, Grenada, Papua, Western Australia, British Hon- 

 duras, Basutoland, British Guiana, Manitoba, and the United Kingdom also, have all 

 in different ways been regulating and restricting liquor licences. 



In England a bill has been introduced, backed by several eminent statesmen, to lessen 

 drinking by levelling up the public house to something of the standard of the Continental 

 caft. The idea is to encourage certain improvements space, comfort, cleanliness, 

 sanitary conveniences, the supply of food, provision of chairs and tables in lieu of bars, 

 together with accommodation for lawful games, papers, music, gardens and any other 

 reasonable recreations. 



Canada has followed up her campaign against drugs by a 50 fine on any person who 

 makes or deals in drugs meaning thereby opium, cocaine or any salts thereof except 

 for scientific or medical purposes. Patent medicines have been made the subject of in- 

 quiry by a Select Committee in England. Queensland has enacted that toys and wall- 

 papers are not to be sold containing arsenic, lead or antimony. 



