HOUSING OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER, 275
Madura Mills Company which has erected a settlement of 176 quarters.
In Coimbatore and Tuticorin no provision of any kind has been made
either by municipal councils or by employers. Many of the poorer
classes, seeking in vain for accommodation, squat on private land
and build flimsy shelters to serve as homes. When the landowners’
demands for ground rent become excessive, these people move to other
sites equally unsuitable and precarious. Eventually scattered cheries
spring up where overcrowding and bad sanitation produce their usual
deleterious effects. For the most part these colonies receive little atten-
tion from the authorites. More often than not the primary necessities
of life are altogether inadequate. Even where piped water supplies are
available, the nearest taps may be far distant, so that water is obtained
from unprotected surface wells. The lack of roads gives municipal cleans-
ing staffs an excuse for their neglect of conservancy. For want of drain-
age and in the absence of latrines streams of sewage filter over the
pathways. It is not surprising that epidemic disease frequently mani-
fests itself in these plague-spots and that both the sickness and mortality
rates of their inmates reach high levels.
Employers’ Schemes in Madras.

The Labour Department of the Madras Government and one
or two co-operative building societies have built a number of houses
in certain areas, but these efforts have had little effect on the main prob-
lem. The one pleasing feature of the situation in the Presidency is the
housing scheme carried out by the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills Com-
pany in Madras City. This Company has-already built three villages with
£59 houses and another village of 200 houses is in course of construction.
The usual type of house consists of a living room, a kitchen and a washing
place with a front verandah and yard. Thelay-out is made as spacious as
possible and all roads are lighted with electricity, although lighting is not
carried into the houses. A piped water supply is obtained from the muni-
cipal mains and all charges for lighting, conservancy and water are paid
by the Company. A nominal rent of Re. 1-8-0 per month is charged, and
neither sub-letting nor occupation by tenants in other employ is permitted.
We have inspected these model villages and consider that the improved
housing conditions and the new opportunities for recreation are bound
to make their occupants more healthy and contented. Every credit
must be given to the Company for its efforts, but the difficulty of obtain-
mg suitable sites and the high cost of land and buildings make provision
on an adequate scale a slow and expensive undertaking. Only 10 per
tent of the mill workers have so far been accommodated, and the great
majority still live in houses rented from private landlords or crowd into
huts erected by themselves.
Cawnpore.
Cawnpore is densely overcrowded and insanitary, the labouring
Population numbering about 90,000 in all. Three-quarters of the town
'8 made up of private bustees or hatas, which are covered with houses
ther unfit for human habitation or in sreat need of improvement,