660 REPORT—1904. 
2. The Development of Towns. By T. C. Horsratu. 
There is a great and complex interaction between a house, its surroundings, 
and its occupants. If homes are to be made more wholesome, all these three 
factors must be improved. Our schools must give better physical, mental, and 
moral training for life, and their influence must be extended by continuation 
classes. Houses must be put into, and maintained in, good order by a system of 
continuous inspection. In new districts houses must have pleasant surroundings, 
the air must be kept as free from smoke as possible, and the dwellings of persons 
of different social classes must be intermixed. While the building of tall tenement 
houses must be prevented, the ‘one-family house’ should cease to be the pre- 
dominant type of workman’s house in and quite near to large towns. The growth 
of towns should be controlled by extension plans, and building districts should be 
created—some reserved for manufactories, and others for dwellings. In the 
districts more remote from the centre houses should not be allowed to have as 
many storeys, and sites to have as large a proportion covered with buildings, as 
are allowed in districts nearer the centre of the town. Town councils should 
have the power to buy and hold land for general purposes, to rate land on its 
selling value, and to levy rates on increase of value when property is sold. The 
incorporation of surrounding districts by large towns should be made much easier, 
Tramlines ought to be made by town councils, but not till much land has 
been bought and a town extension plan prepared. Town councils ought to be 
strengthened by the employment of paid mayors and chairmen of committees, who 
ought to be appointed for long periods. 
The most important of all the measures which can be taken at present for the 
improvement of housing are the improvement of town councils and the giving 
of a large amount of representation on education committees to teachers. 
3. The Town Housing Question. By Mrs. Fisner. 
The fundamental difficulty of the question is the growth of town populations, 
which have been housed without any regard to hygienic conditions, 
There are two main aspects of the problem: (1) the sanitary aspect, z.e., the 
existence of slums and insanitary areas; and (2) the house famine. This, again, 
is of two kinds: first, and more rarely, a house famine due to special circum- 
stances, e.g., when the sudden growth of an industry causes an abnormal increase 
of population; second, a constant difficulty as to the supply of cheap houses. 
Increased cost of building has not checked the growth of superior house accommo- 
dation, but has interfered with the production of cheap houses, while improvements 
remove the old inexpensive cottages. Hence there is great pressure on those which 
still exist. 
How have local authorities attempted to cope with these difficulties ? 
1. In the case of insanitary areas they have used Part I. of the Housing Act; 
in the case of small groups of bad houses improvements have been effected by 
Part II. and by the Public Health Act. 
2. The preventive and regulative work of the sanitary authorities has done 
much, and might do more, to improve bad conditions and to stimulate healthy 
effort. 
3. Lastly, there have been attempts to deal with the house famine by means of 
municipal house building and owning. There are several different policies with 
regard to this. 
(a) The Liverpool policy of cheap tenement houses on central sites, the object 
of which is to rehouse the very poorest classes who now occupy court houses, 
The results are interesting, and there are many arguments for and against it. 
