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Hong Kong Builder
In France the State assists in the provision of cheap housing by granting loans at low rates of interest and by direct grants for large families. Some types of new dwellings are exempt from land tax and local taxes for a period of years and certain types of housing societies are also exempt from stamp duties, transfer duties and registration fees. In Holland, State assistance now takes the form of cheap loans to recognised building societies, the municipality acting as guarantor; in special cases there may be an annual contribution to working expenses, where rents are beyond the means of the tenant. In Belgium the State operates directly through recognised societies, the chief of which is National Society for Cheap Housing. The Society borrows money at low interest rates, and erects houses to be let at non- profit making rents, the work being carried out under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance and the Min- istry of Industry, Works and Social Supervision. In Sweden and Denmark cheap credit facilities are granted and in addition Government and Municipal land is sold at cheap prices. In Denmark tax concessions are also granted. In neither country is there much direct building by the local authorities the work mainly being carried out by co-operative or other approved societies.
Financial difficulties are not the only ones confront- ing the local authority. The slums are overcrowded with buildings and the buildings are overcrowded with people. Slum clearance means reducing both the number of buildings and the number of people in the slum areas. The local authority must not only provide houses for any increase in population, but must also provide houses for the dispossessed surplus from the slums, if and when clearance is undertaken. Dealing in large numbers, suit- able sites are few and not easy to find and even when
found the local authority must possess powers to acquire them. The working man must live within easy reach of his place of employment, and consequently the tran- sport problem is a vital one. Used to a certain type of social life and certain facilities arising out of living in crowded quarters in the heart of a town, he cannot be casually dumped into a totally different environment. His new surroundings must be an improvement on, but bear some resemblance to, what he has been used to in the past, and he must be educated up to appreciating the improvement. The bad habits and shifty character born of generations of slum dwelling cannot be eradicated in five minutes. At least one generation will be required. Housing management must therefore combine with it educative social service.
Slum clearance, too, cannot be achieved by clearing out the surplus population and pulling down a few houses to reduce building density to the required level. Most slum houses are antiquated in design and far below acceptable standards of sanitation. Bad arrangement, awkward shaped lots, and numerous small ownerships, produce conditions under which, even if the individual owner were willing to rebuild, such a course would not be in the interests of either community or owner. Only action by the authority or combined action by all owners. (a highly improbable contingency) can produce satis- factory results, and again, as in town planning, legal difficulties arise out of interference with private inter- ests. Apart from clearly definable slum areas there are also many instances of isolated houses being unfit for human habitation, and the authority must possess powers to protect the public by preventing such houses being used unless they are rendered fit for use.
THE COMFORTABLE BATH
Hot water-really hot-up to your chin. None of that "in-and-out-in-a-hurry" feeling. You can take your time when gas heats the bath water, Gas will give you relays of steaming baths each as hot as the one before it. Hot water is not an expensive luxury. Call at the Gas Showrooms and see the latest water heaters. They do their job automatically and with economy of gas. No work, no worry- and a price to suit your pocket.
SIMPLE
HIRE TERMS from $100 per month.
THE HONG KONG & CHINA GAS CO., LTD.
Central Showroom: GLOUCESTER BUILDING
Phone 24704.
Kowloon Showroom: 246 NATHAN ROAD
Phone 57341.
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