CO129-450 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [10-12] — Page 367

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junks, and in less desirable ways which bring them into contact with the police. Much of the serious crime, such as armed robbery, that has taken place during the past two years can be traced to undesirables who enter the Colony by sea and land because their om country has become too hot to hold them. I do not suggest that the population of the Colony will decrease if an exodus of this nature should take place. On the contrary, I think that there will be a large demand for labour for shipbuilding of all kinds, for smelting works and for many minor industries dependent on these, with the result that the additional population will reside in the neighbour- -hood of these industries being spread over outlying parte of the harbour and not concentrated in the centre of the City.

6.

It would be of course possible to insist

all

that each house should have so many occupants and no more, but the task of seeing that such an order was carried into effect would entail the employment of a body of trained officers out of proportion to that at present employed, and such officers are not at present available. Even if action on these lines could be taken there would be nowhere for the displaced population to go except out of the Colony, and there would be the invidious and practically impossible task of selecting who was to go and who to remain. I am, therefore, satisfied that the only practical solution of the overcrowd- -ing problem is to be found by methods which I will proceed

to describe,

7.

The problem is indeed two-fold:-

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(a). The abolition of badly built and insanitary houses. (b). The opening up of new areas for suitable houses and ̈

the provision of easy and cheap means of communica-

-tion.

8.

I do not propose to deal with the former proposition at any length in this Despatch because it is a separate matter, which will have to be the subject of very

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