housing purposes in excess of immediate requirements, and they are able to lay out housing estates and lease sites to builders for the erection of working-class dwellings, subject, however, to certain restrictions.

Under section 5 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1900, and section 2 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1903, local authorities are not enabled to let on lease developed sites for purposes other than the erection of working-class dwellings, a restriction which severely handicaps them in developing building areas. Indeed, only two municipalities, Birmingham and Hereford, seem to have found it possible to use these clauses. Authority to buy land not immediately required for the purpose of housing was given in the Act of 1909, but only Swansea, Liverpool, and one or two other authorities have so far availed themselves of this power. In a few instances permission to buy land for housing in anticipation of future requirements was given by the Local Government Board previous to 1909.1

The combination of the public ownership and development of building land with private and co-operative building enterprise offers several advantages worth considering

(1) The fact that land compulsorily acquired by the local authority at a fair price was being offered on reasonable terms to builders would tend to prevent the price of other building land in the locality from rising to an unreasonable figure.

(2) In addition to exercising such control over the laying-out of estates as it possessed under the Town Planning powers, the local authority would have more power to control the design and construction of the houses themselves.

(3) Since it would be to the interest of the authority to facilitate in every possible way the erection of good houses at a low cost, it would charge ground rents covering only the purchase price of the land, the cost of road-making and sewage, and other expenses, without additional profits; and builders would thus have the advantage of obtaining individual sites at what may be termed wholesale prices.

(4) The increment in the value of the land would ultimately go to the community.

1 But see the Housing and Town Planning, etc., Act, 1919.

CHAPTER XXXVI

RURAL HOUSING

IN the matter of rural housing, the first question to be decided was whether the Rural District Councils were to be continued as the housing authority, or whether the work should be carried through by the County Council in the place of the Rural District Council. At first sight the latter might appear the better scheme. The broader outline and wider view which a scheme on larger lines. would indicate, and the possibility of the better position in which the County Council would stand in raising capital, giving orders for large quantities of building materials and standardized fittings— the advantages also of uniformity of control justify this conclusion. Should it be thought that the Rural District Councils would not rise to the emergency, the choice of the Government would undoubtedly be in favour of a county scheme.

On the other hand, the shortcomings of some of the County Councils in the past, the lack of interest shown by its members in the local conditions of the various parishes, the want of enthusiasm in realizing their opportunities in matters affecting public health, and in the manner in which they have neglected their responsibilities in matters relating to tuberculosis so that the fringe of the plague only had been dealt with, and the tendency of all county business to concentrate into the hands of officials, lead to the conclusion that rural housing should be dealt with by the Rural District Councils who should be the authority entrusted therewith. Under such an arrangement the Rural District Councils would be responsible in their several areas for carrying out a comprehensive scheme of erecting houses for the working classes. They have the advantage of a thorough knowledge of and interest in local rural conditions; and it was consequently decided to leave the Rural District Councils in possession of the field. They are the local authority responsible for matters relating to the condemnation of houses unfit for habitation, the provision of new

housing and building, of sanitation and sewage disposal, of water supply and public health. They have in their service a medical officer of health, a surveyor, and an inspector of nuisances, who know the inside as well as the outside of every house in the district, with records of house to house inspection, and all the details of sewers, sewage and irrigation plots, wells and water supplies, houses, farms, cow-sheds, and dairies. They make the by-laws and know the precise places where their by-laws pinched unnecessarily, and how to modify them to give greater ease to the builder, without detriment to the comfort, safety and security of the building or its occupants.

With regard to the broad lines or principles on which a housing scheme must be drafted, certain conditions must be observed and considered in framing the scheme, in order that conclusive evidence may be given to the Local Government Board that the housesare absolutely necessary in order to meet existing requirements for the purpose of housing the working population. Before the submission of a scheme to the Local Government Board the sites must be provisionally acquired, and the purchase price agreed subject to the approval of the Local Government Board. On the other hand, there is nothing to prevent a draft outline being submitted, and this has certain obvious advantages, as showing that the local authority is anxious and ready to take its part in the great national scheme of rural housing and reconstruction.

The rural housing problem will only be satisfactorily solved when an economic rent is secured. The present position is much

Provision of Houses by Public Bodies.

worse than before the war because of the difficulties in building and the operations of the Rent and Mortgage Restrictions Acts. Just before the war a large number of the cottages in the countryside were occupied by Government officials, railway officials, county local authority officials, or various persons not agricultural labourers. It is essential that there should be a regular supply of cottages in the rural districts, and that can never be obtained without a gradually increasing scale of rent until an economic rent is reached. It should be compulsory for the Government, local authorities, and railway companies to house their employees throughout the rural

areas.

We shall not solve the housing problem until we break down the barrier between the town and the country, a barrier which is harmful to town and country alike, but disastrous to our town dwelling population.

From Town to
Country.

Readers of Mr. Seebohm Rowntree's invaluable book on Land and Labour in Belgium will recall his interesting description of the breakdown of the barrier and antagonism between town and country in Belgium.

Very cheap and excellent methods of transport enable a large proportion of working men to work in the towns and live in the country. The town worker living in the country has a small holding of land. He grows food for his family-possibly even more, enough to market some of it. This man will never altogether starve, will not be entirely without profitable employment, and will not be thrown on the streets in times of industrial distress in the way that inhabitants of town dwellings are.

But clearly the town workers cannot live outside the townseven if suitable houses are provided for them there-unless there are cheap and easy means of travelling. The provision of arterial roads is an essential part of town planning. Equally important is the provision of trams, omnibuses, light railways and a further extension of railway facilities, which must follow the erection of rural houses.

We cannot have good road construction, and efficient means of transit, nor will any aspect of our town planning be satisfactory, under our present far-too-small and numerous local government areas. Municipal authorities have outgrown their boundaries. There are certain services which can still very adequately be performed efficiently by a larger authority. A multiplicity of small authorities brings friction, confusion and waste. We must not look at these questions parochially. We must have a wider outlook. Road construction and town planning are emphatically among the services which require a wider unit of administration than the existing authorities.

From the social point of view, as well as from the economic, the State might effectively intervene to build up a contented rural population. President Roosevelt wrote in his letter appointing the Country Life Commission: "Agriculture is not the whole of country life. The great rural interests are human interests, and

good crops are of little value to the farmer unless they open the door to a kind of life on the farm."

Social Development.

First among the social questions is that of the education of the children. All writers on the social causes of the depopulation of the rural districts agree that the State education has been totally unsuited to the needs of the country child. While railways have provided the means for the labourer to move away from the land, the school is responsible for inspiring him with the wish to do so. What is needed is a type of education that will interest the boys and girls in country life, instead of separating them from it. Education in the past has been too bookish, too little concerned with the application of knowledge to meet everyday needs. In the early days of education the power to read and write and figure was supposed to have some magic in itself. In the towns, it has been found necessary to add to elementary teaching, as distinguished from secondary education, a certain amount of technical instruction. That the country has also a technical side, apart from definite agricultural training, has not been sufficiently recognized. The appreciation of the world of nature and of man's power to use and modify it must run through all instruction in the rural school. If the rising generation is to be kept on the soil they must be interested in it; the children must be trained for country life. In this respect rural education has suffered like so many other problems, by the consideration of the broad question chiefly as it has affected city life.

The rural housing problem calls for very definite and careful consideration. At present the requirements of the sanitary authorities make the erection of cottages very expensive, and these often bring no return to the landowner beyond making it easier to let his land. The difficulty might be met by some system of building societies, supported by advances of State funds, and, possibly, the sanitary regulations, which have usually been framed with an eye to urban rather than rural conditions, might be so modified as to be less burdensome.

Among the social legislation which may be mentioned as having an indirect but important influence on the rural problem are the Old Age Pensions Acts, the National Insurance Acts, and the Corn Production Act. They will give a greater sense of security to the