Sessional_Paper_1898 — Page 468

(14)

ary defects which the Sanitary Board have at present no legal power to deal with. I do not think the expense will be very great.

Mr. JACKSON—It does not come within our province to say who is to pay for this thing.

WITNESS-I thought you meant the whole cost.

The CHAIRMAN-I do not wish to raise now the question as to who is to pay, but to ascertain generally the probable cost.

Mr. EDE-Except this: I think the amount of land it would take up is 10 feet for backyards. How wide is a house generally?

WITNESS-14 or 15 feet.

Ten times 15 you have for the backyard.-150 square feet.

WITNESS-The width of the house includes two 14-inch walls; the open space would only be about 10 feet by 13 feet.

Yes, not 10 feet by 15. That 130 square feet of land is worth, under present calculations for the purpose which they use it, $8 a foot. That is about $1,200, apart from the cost of making the walls.-No, my suggestion as to the provision of the ten foot or fifteen foot backyard applies only to buildings which are going to be erected—- new buildings.

Then it is only the cost of the land that they now get for dwelling purposes and which they would have to allow for ventilation ?—Yes, if they pull the house down.

you

Mr. EDE-It is only in case of a fire or of a very old house which must come down for other reasons that this must happen. It would take a very long time to do it if are going to make a law that it is only when these houses are re-erected that the provision applies. That might take half a century.

Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD-Possibly more.

WITNESS-The suggestions I have made are of two kinds; firstly those for the impro- vement of the sanitary condition of the existing buildings, and I think they are reasonably sufficient; secondly those intended to ensure the erection of sanitary dwellings in the future. I do not see how these latter suggestions will delay the improvement of the sanitary condition of the Colony.

Hon. T. H WHITEHEAD-The other suggestions you have put forward would place the buildings in a state fit for human habitation, which they are not at present ?-- Yes. The only alternative is to knock down the houses which exist in the City, and even if it takes you fifty years to carry out my suggestions it would take you just as long to pull down the buildings and re-erect them all in a proper manner. On the ground of overcrowding alone, I am very much against demolishing large areas like Taipingshan.

Mr. EDE-Do you think that houses that are now back to back and have no such open area of which you spoke should be stamped out as soon as possible? What the price is to be is no doubt a matter for this Commission to consider, and also resumption or otherwise, but do you think it is desirable they should be taken one by one, or block by block, and put in the condition you spoke of, with a 10 feet area ?—No, I do not think it is necessary if you will secure the enforcement of all the suggestions which I have made for their immediate improvement; moreover, many of these old dwellings would tumble down bodily if you attempted any such alteration as you propose.

It would be necessary in re-erecting houses and not necessary in pulling them down?-From a purely theoretical sanitary point of view it is desirable, but you have to consider what is to become of the population that is disturbed. I do not think it is necessary to deal with back to back houses so as to render them practically uninhabit-