HOMES AND WAGES 149 



of the Housing Act of 1909 to April, 1913, the 

 total number is only 470 for the whole of Great 

 Britain ; at the same time this minute increase 

 in the number of houses has been more than 

 nullified, as far as actual accommodation is 

 concerned, by the closing of 5,486 insanitary 

 cottages ! The Housing and Town Planning 

 Act may to some extent meet the necessities 

 of urban reform, but it will accomplish 

 little towards solving the vexed question 

 of rural housing. Take for instance one of 

 the best examples of building under M/. 

 Burns' Act in the village of Chipperfield, near 

 King's Langley. Here, after repeated failures 

 and rebuffs, Mr. Aronson, a public-spirited 

 member of the Rural District Council, suc- 

 ceeded in getting the Act put into force. A 

 loan was sanctioned by the Local Government 

 Board and six excellent cottages erected at 

 the cost of 160 each. There were three 

 bedrooms, a large living-room and scullery, 

 and 15 poles of garden was attached to each 

 house. But the rent was 4/6 a week, an abso- 

 lutely prohibitive charge for an agricultural 

 labourer. The Act is useless in the case of the 

 people who especially need our help. Once 

 more the poor labourer is left in the lurch. 

 All that can be urged in support of such enter- 

 prize as this is that by the building of even 



