128 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



quences of sanitary neglect in Cobalt and other mining centres, re- 

 sulting in serious loss of life from preventable disease. 



We see, on the one hand, balance sheets of mining corporations 

 that bulge with big dividends, and, on the other hand, the dreary, 

 disorderly and unhealthy shack towns in which the miners are forced 

 to live, unredeemed by any public-spirited effort to improve them by 

 those who conduct the operations. Canada is only following the 

 lead of other countries in that respect. 



Mining Villages in Great Britain 



Britain, which has attained a high standard in public health 

 during the last 30 years, has failed to deal satisfactorily with the prob- 

 lem of mining villages. Within the past ten years new mining areas 

 have been developed in England and Scotland and some of the worst 

 housing and sanitary conditions in these countries have accompanied 

 these developments. 



During the years 1911 to 1914, the writer investigated the hous- 

 ing and sanitary conditions of the great mining field in the Don- 

 caster area of Yorkshire, comprising about 300 square miles, for 

 the Local Government Board of England and Wales. In 1913, 

 no fewer than nineteen new pits were projected in that area. A 

 large amount of building development had taken place during the 

 few years prior to 1913. Numerous towns and villages, which, 

 in 1901, had a population varying from 400 to about 3,000, had in- 

 creased to from 3,000 to 7,000, and urban districts adjacent to Don- 

 caster had nearly doubled in population. The problem in this dis- 

 trict in regard to development was very similar to what exists in the 

 mining districts of Canada. When the population in one parish in- 

 creased from 250 to 4,897 in ten years, it was almost impossible to pro- 

 vide adequate sanitary arrangements to cope with the rapid growth. 



The principal obstacle to the provision of up-to-date methods of 

 drainage and sanitation was the inability of the rural districts to bor- 

 row money for the purpose of providing the necessary facilities in 

 advance of development. It was apparent that the only solution 

 of the problem was for the government to help to finance improve- 

 ment schemes in such districts, placing part of the burden for provid- 

 ing such improvements upon the large colliery companies which were 

 responsible for causing the development. In these areas, crowded 

 rows of houses were being built right up to the boundaries of existing 

 narrow highways; roads, which had been adequate for agricultural 

 purposes, were being rendered impassable by the traffic of the collier- 



