422 REMSCHEID. with several floors and two dwellings as a rule on each floor. The half-timber buildings, which represent the traditional architecture of the Berg country, are for the most part one or two family houses, and the working classes usually tenant these older houses. OE 1,179 workmen who made returns on the point for the purpose of this report, 900 or 76 3 per cent, lived in “half timber ” houses (501 in two-room and 399 in three-room dwellings) and 279 or 23 7 per cent, in “ massive” houses (163 in two-room and 116 in three-room dwellings). The “half-timber” houses may consist either of the ground floor only, or of the ground floor and an attic story, or the ground floor, a first story, and an attic story. In any case the rooms are as a rule smaller than in dwellings of the modern flat type, for here, as in other towns where the small- house system survives, number of rooms is attained at the expense of size. There are great inequalities of accommodation, however, and in the outlying parts of the town the sanitary arrangements are often unsatisfactory, though there has been a distinct improvement since the last typhoid outbreak of 1901. The newer houses are much better, and in them the municipal building laws are enforced with some vigour. There is a good deal of subletting, and lodgers are frequently taken in to board. The usual accommodation of a working-class family is two or three rooms, though often er two than three. Of 1,365 dwellings actually tenanted by working people whose rents were classified for the purpose of this report, 664 or 48'6 per cent, consisted of two rooms, 515 or 37*7 per cent, of three rooms, 128 or 9*4 per cent, of four rooms, while 47 (3*4 per cent.) had five or six rooms, and 11 (0*8 per cent.) had one room only. The kitchen is invariably used as the living room and not infrequently it contains a bed, if not more than one. There is considerable variety in rents, according as the dwellings are in the inner town or in the environs, and this is particularly so in the case of dwellings of three rooms. Kent is calculated per room. In the town the general range is from £4 10s. to £5 per annum for an ordinary room and from £2 Ids. upwards for an attic room. Predominant Weekly Bents of Working Class Dwellings. Number of Rooms per Tenement. Two rooms . Three rooms Predominant Weekly Rent. Inner Town. 3s. to 3S. 10d. 3s. 10d. to 5s. 9d. Outer Districts. Remscheid as a whole. 3s. to 3s. 6t/. 3s. 6d. to 4s. Id. 3s. to 3s. 6d. 3s. Gd. to 5s. 2d. As a rule a two-room dwelling in a half-timber house costs 6d. per week less than one in a “ massive ” building, and the difference is proportionately greater in the case of three-room tenements. The general rule is that the tenant must do the papering and whitewashing, and he usually pays for the removal of refuse, the emptying of cesspools, and chimney cleaning. In the newer houses the landlord undertakes the papering, &c., and the rents are somewhat higher in consequence. Though the rent is reckoned by the year (from May to May), it is paid monthly. # The above rents must be regarded as high for a town of the size of Kein scheid, although they are not so high as in the neighbouring town of Solingen. The dearness of house accommodation is due in part to the geographical conditions, which render the land available for building purposes both scanty and dear, and also to the difficulty of procuring building materials (since the neighbourhood offers no sources of supply). Taking rent in Berlin as 100, the corresponding figure for Remscheid is 56. The foregoing rents include the charge for water, but no other taxes. The taxes which fall on the working classes in Remscheid are the State income tax, subject to the exemption of incomes not exceeding £45, a municipal supplement to this tax, which falls upon all incomes above £21, and a church tax. The municipal income tax is 230 per cent, of the State income tax on incomes above £45, on incomes between £33 and £45 it is 150 per cent, of a nominal State assessment of 4s. (viz., 6s.), and on incomes between £21 and £33 it is 125 per cent, of a nominal State assessment of 2s. 4'8d. (viz., 3s.), while the church tax is 30 per cent, of the State income tax in the case of Protestants and