XXX
REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION OF 1886-87.
purchaser of a duplicate of his contract; but there should be stringent limitations as to the time during which the temporary registration should be allowed, as otherwise some purchasers would probably neglect to take out their Leases at all. When the Lease is taken out the Register in respect of each particular piece of land should be closed.
OVERCROWDING IN VICTORIA, ITS CAUSES AND METHODS
OF ALLEVIATION.
With regard to overcrowding, it appears that so long ago as the year 1849 Mr. DUDDELL called the attention of the Land Committee sitting at that time to the remarkable hoarding together of the Chinese.
And this has gone on increasing to the present day.
In 1874 the Colonial Surgeon called the serious attention of the Government to the evils of over- crowding
In 1880 the Military Authorities complained to the Government of the excessive crowding of the houses erected within the neighbourhood of the Barracks, endangering the health of the Troops, and suggested a Colonial Ordinance should be passed limiting the inhabitants of a house to what Health Officers consider a fitting number of human beings.
In the same year the Earl of KIMBERLEY, (Despatch 26th November, 1880), complained to Governor HENNESSY that little appeared to have been done since the date of the Colonial Surgeon, Dr. AXRES' reports to improve the sanitary condition of those parts of the Town of Victoria which are inhabited by Chinese, and that the rapid growth of the population cannot fail to have added to the evil of overcrowding.
Statements have recently been made that, if the sanitary measures proposed by the newly con- stituted Sanitary Board are adopted, large numbers of people will be rendered homeless, and even now, notwithstanding the cold season has not yet come to an end, it is alleged people are already obliged to sleep in the streets,
Rents in the Colony are simply enormous, the rents charged for European dwelling houses being at least three times as much as the rents obtained in any close suburb of London, without the same accommodation and at least double what they ought to be.
The Commissioners are of opinion that this will be a question for a Crown Land Board, or other constituted body, to consider seriously and to report as to whether any steps can be taken by the Government to afford relief, in this respect, by putting land in the market for sale at a reduced Crown Rent or otherwise.
The Government, as has been pointed out, has a monopoly of all the unsold land, and an intending purchaser must either comply with any terms that the Government may demand, or purchase land already sold by Government, and in the hands of private persons, (much of which is in the hands of persons who have bought for investment), or go without.
The sale of land by Government has no effect in reducing rents, because as lands in the hands of private parties increase in value an additional and proportional Crown rent is claimed by Government, In addition to this as rents increase, so, in like proportion, do rates, and the result of all these combined causes is that houses for respectable European families are difficult to obtain; rents are constantly being forced up higher, and the Commissioners are informed that a large number of the poorer classes of the European community are compelled, to their great detriment, owing to the high rents asked for the very smallest European house, to live in Chinese houses.
The best means to adopt for the checking of overcrowding is to enlarge the area in which people can live, and the most obvious thing to do is, if possible, to get the Naval and Military Establishments, removed from the centre of the Town, or at all events to remove as far as they can do so consistently with the interests of the Government.