The site of three-quarters of an acre was obtained by agreement for £130 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. At a cost of £35 a well was sunk, a pump fitted for water supply, and drains were laid to a great extent on the admirable principles advocated by Dr. Vivian Poore, the apostle of natural purification of sewage by exposure to the earth and the air.

Sixty architects sent in designs for the cottages, but, as usual, the weak point was the cost of erection, which was under-estimated by the successful competitor. However, by the help and goodwill of the architect and builder, and after a partially successful contest with the Local Government Board, the plans were modified. Amended tenders

were obtained for the erection of six lobbied cottages at a cost of about £1,540.

The site is concreted under the flooring; the walls are of double brick, with air space between up to the first floor, and above that weather tiles nailed on brick. The cottages have an entrance and staircase apart from the living rooms, and contain the following accommodation :-On the ground floor, a kitchen, 12ft. by 10ft. 6in.; a sitting room, 11ft. by 11ft; scullery, 1oft. 6in. by 6ft. 6in. On the first floor, three bedrooms, two ventilated by fireplaces, and the third by a ventilating shaft. All the rooms are 8 feet high, and well-lighted with large windows nearly reaching the ceilings. The total inclusive cost was about £1,800.

The money was borrowed at a cost of 34 per cent., as at Ixworth, from the Public Works Loan Commissioners, but for a period of 40 years, so that the annual cost for interest and repayment of principal is £74 9s. 6d., or £4 2s. 9d. per cent. The rents, at 5/- per week, produce £78, leaving a margin of £3 10s. 6d. for repairs. The rates are compounded for by Miss Escombe, who collects them with the rents, and thus reduces them to the lowest possible figure.

Dealing with the letting of the cottages, Miss Escombe says :—

We began with six cottages as an experiment, knowing we should only relieve the extreme pressure; this pressure has unfortunately increased in the interval. Two of our cottages are let to men who had been living in cottages belonging to large houses; these, owing to changes in tenure, have come to be needed for the servants of these houses. One was an especially hard case. An elderly man, who had lived all his life in Penshurst, and brought up a large family most respectably, would have been obliged to move quite away, if our Parish Council had not been able to supply him with a new home. Then, again, two men who have been living all their married life in odd rooms, have secured two more of our cottages. Four are thus taken up, and we have only two wherewith to help the village.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising to learn that the Council are contemplating the erection of additional cottages at an early date.

The new cottages are to be built in terraces of six, and will cost less than the first lot of cottages.

Attempts to provide dwellings under Part III of the Act of 1890 have been, or are being, made at Wroxham, Horsford, S. Faith's, East Grinstead (Rural), Maldon (Rural), Hexham (Rural), Barrow-on-Soar (Rural), and Mitcham. At Mitcham, although a special parish council election was fought on the housing issue, and eleven out of fifteen councillors were returned pledged to secure the adoption of Part III, the Surrey County Council, after the usual inquiry under sec. 55 (1), refused to grant their certificate, and nothing more could be done with any effect.

By the Housing Act of 1900 the procedure for rural housing has been simplified to a certain extent. The chief changes are—

(1) In lieu of the complicated procedure for adoption prescribed by the proviso to sec. 54 and by sec. 55 of the Act of 1890, it is provided that a rural district council may, with the consent of the county council, adopt Part III, either for the whole of their district or for any contributory place therein [sec. 2, Housing Act, 1900].

(2) If the district council make default in properly exercising their power of adopting and acting under Part III, they will be liable to have their powers transferred to the county council [sec. 6].

(3) The parish council may pass a statutory resolution asking the county council to take action where the rural district council has not done so [sec. 6].

These and other consequential changes are given in detail on pp. 55-57 of the Appendix.

RURAL HOUSING IN IRELAND.

It is to Ireland, however, that we must turn for examples of Rural Housing on a large scale. A summary of the various Acts under which some 15,000 municipal cottages have been erected for labourers is given on pp. 32-34, together with statistics as to cost, rents, and loan charges, but as little seems to be known outside Ireland as to the excellent quality of the dwellings that have been erected in the various rural districts, the following description of some, provided in the Middleton Rural District, County Cork (which are among the best of their kind), may be useful to housing reformers elsewhere. The particulars with regard to these cottages have been derived from official information kindly supplied by Richard Evans, Esq., C.E., of Cork, who has given much time and attention to this difficult problem, and has succeeded in designing some very healthy and convenient dwellings at a moderate cost. When ordinary housing conditions of rural districts in Ireland are borne in mind, it must be admitted that these municipal cottages are a big step towards raising the standard of housing among the labourers. The plots of ground are about one acre in extent, and though in some districts the houses are semi-detached, those here described are detached cottages of one storey. In the Middleton and Kinsale Rural Districts 198 cottages are being built; about 30 of them, however, are not yet contracted for.

The site is cleared of vegetable earth, and covered with a layer of stone, six inches thick, so that the floor level is at least six inches above the adjoining ground, and a 4ft. path is formed round, graded so as to drain the surface water.

The foundations are two feet deep, on flat flags, well crossed and bonded.

The walls are 18 inches thick, of rubble masonry, in courses 14 inches high, well beaded and bonded.