Feb, 3, THE title of one of the songs ish concert on was "My ain wee hoose." It proclaimed in homely Doric the joys of home, sweet home, and such a theme creates a response in all but the most vagrant of hearts. The Englishman's house is said to be his castle, and our laws protect with the greatest stringency the Privacy of the home. Out in the. world a man is exposed to the! buffetings of fortune, but if he! Possessex a home and a fireside of his own he has a refuge from: the storms of life where he may smoke the pipe of peace and regain the strength and courage: to play a man's part in life. But. in spite of the fact that we: make more of home than almost there a in who own their houses than in any. civilized land. We have the stately homes of England," but we have also sume of the worst slums to be found in any country. and, since the war, houses have! been x0. scarce that local: authorities dare not pull down, insanitary" bul because the occupants have no other shelter:
they can go. Half a is better than no bread, and an unsatisfactory house is better than no house at all.
These deplorable conditions see to have at last aroused public terest and decisive steps are in contemplation to take away our: reproach amongst the nations that) we sing the songs of home and are content for a vast number of our people to dwell in hovels.
Under the late Labour Government Mr. Wheatley, who was} Minister of Health, brought in a housing scheme which for! comprehensiveness—and, it, may' be added, sheer wastefulriess—almost took the nation's breath away. Tt was proposed to spend 3 £1,866,229,000 in building houses! for the homeless masses, Spread] over fifty-six years that would mean a sum of 244 million pounds per annum to be expended on this purpose, It was an enormous sum, and yet, as we threw iduced to face even such an outlay as this in the cause of peace, Moreover, the money is not wasted as in wat} but is invested in brick and' mortar which if well and truly' put together will, ultimately, repay the investment. Before the establishment of the Irish Free State, Britain invested many, millions in a Land Purchase] scheme to make the lot of the tenant farmers in Ireland a little more tolerable. The result of that scheme was highly satisfactory from the standpoint of those who benefited by it and few would contend that the money was not well spent. That Ireland to-day enjoys measure: of prosperity" beyond anything known in former years is, for the most part, due to the wise legislation which provided for lavish expenditure on land purchase. 'The obvious weakness of Mr. Wheatley's scheme was that it proposed to spend £550 in building a worse house than private enterprise had already constructed for under £400. In Mr. Wheatley's scheme of housing, moreover, the property' builwas to be owned by the State or Municipality, a guarantee of little beyond inefficiency and possible "graft."
Under the new Government, Mr. Neville Chamberlain intends to devote his energies to the Promotion of the ownership of their houses by the occupiers. Already very great strides in thi direction have been taken. From January 1, 1923, to December of the same year no less than £7,- '866,000 had been advanced to persons desirous of building their own homes and 10,168) houses had been so constructed, This brings a new ray of hope to the poorer class of the population. Most of us are painfully aware that the rents we pay are the chief burden on our financial resources. If we take the trouble to make a short calculation we shall readily see that in the] course of our lives we pay away much more money in rent than would have built the most com-odious of the houses it has been our lot to live in and, over} and above, left us a handsome] surplus towards a retiring allow-'The mass of people, both here and in Britain, are never uble, at one time, to' accumulate' sufficient money to be able to invest in a house of thei The Government money on such those willing 0 build that there is @ reasonable prospect that, in ime, the majority of people Britain shall own their ow) houses. The result of this will be, in the opinion of the Ministe of Health, that the disease of] communism will be eradicated, The property-holder has a different outlook on life from the! tian whos" continually Mtr the sin spectre Jnoverte amd want, Bist Clos George said, n'a momerstie speech, that Bolshevism was a microbe that attacked defeated nations. A hungry man is angry man and he is invariably again the Government." The. dentist is not impressed by his} patient's tale of woe about aches} and swellings, He removes the offending cause and the pain dis. appears of itself. If the Govern ment of Great Britain applies itself to the amelioration of the conditions under which the common people pass their lives with the same energy and resource} ith which it prosecuted the war, who shall say that a brighter eva; shall not dawn ere the world be!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.