AUTHORITIES' RESPONSIBILITIES : DISCUSSION 93 



she would personally bring forward such a proposition 

 before the council. She would be very glad if that side of 

 the question could be considered in the discussion how 

 they could obtain money out of the rates. 



Councillor JOHN PHILLIPS (Abertillery) said he wished to 

 say just one word or two in regard to the first paper, which 

 was a most interesting one to him. On the whole he was 

 in agreement with the views expressed in the paper, but in 

 regard to certain matters contained in it, as a member of a 

 public authority it presented some difficulties. To him the 

 housing question was one of the most important matters 

 that affected the health of any locality, and unless the con- 

 ditions were made quite easy for the local authority to alter 

 the present housing conditions, he was of opinion that they 

 would not make the progress they ought to make. In some 

 of the industrial districts they were faced with the position 

 that an enormous value was placed upon land when it was 

 required for housing or other improvements. When a local 

 authority desired to obtain some land for housing, or even 

 on which to erect schools, they found themselves confronted 

 with a charge of anything between .800 and 1,000 per 

 acre, which was prohibitive for a district already burdened 

 with heavy rates. He would like to say, as far as the refer- 

 ence to health visitors was concerned, that personally he 

 would like to see that made compulsory and he would 

 like to see the local authorities subsidized by the 

 central authorities in that respect. He believed that great 

 good could be achieved by those officers by way of inspection 

 of the homes and by the advice given to mothers, and also 

 by the attention given to the children. He would like to 

 see some readjustment in some form or another to assist 

 those districts which had been referred to in the papers as 

 far too poor to carry out the necessary improvements 

 towards the reduction of infant mortality. At present the 

 districts which were the most heavily burdened by the rates 

 were those districts where the great wealth of this country 

 was produced. The districts which were lightly burdened 

 as far as local rates were concerned were those districts 

 which were healthy and where they had the lowest death- 

 rates. In those districts where infant mortality was high 

 the rates were very, very heavy, and he would like to see 

 some readjustment. By way of illustration, they might take 

 Bath and Bristol. In Bristol, which was an industrial 

 centre, he found that the rates were about 50 per cent, over 

 and above what they were at Bath. Bath was a w r ell-known 

 residential and health resort, and he would like to see a 

 city like Bath come in to the rescue of the neighbouring 



