172 
DANTZIG. 
A few details of the most noteworthy schemes for relieving the pressure of 
the housing difficulty in Dantzig are added in conclusion of this section. 
During the past thirty years the " Ahegg Workmen’s Dwellings Endow 
ment”—a fund which owes its existence to the benevolence of a Dantzig family 
—has provided the means whereby the pressure of the housing question has 
been relieved in various parts of the town. The fund was established for the 
purpose of " erecting healthy family dwellings for working men, small master- 
craftsmen, subordinate officials and people in a similar economic position, and 
enabling such persons to acquire their own houses,” and, originating in a gift of 
£3,000, it has increased by careful investment and by later benefactions to a 
capital of nearly £15,000. On the security of this capital and the property 
under its control the management of the Abegg Endowment borrows money 
from the State Insurance Authorities and private banks, and by the constant 
sale of the property it builds, the money at its disposal is kept remuneratively 
employed in increasing the number of small house-owners in Dantzig. A 
number of colonies and blocks of dwellings have been erected, consisting for the 
most part of single-family houses of the English pattern, though some are 
double houses, with one dwelling below and one above. The usual accommo 
dation of a single-family house consists of a living room and a kitchen below, 
and a large bedroom and an attic above, with cellar, yard and shed and a piece 
of garden ground ; each of the two tenements in a double-house has two rooms 
and a kitchen with cellar. The usual price of a small dwelling is about £160. 
Before a tenant can be regarded as a prospective owner he is expected to deposit 
£7 10s. In the next ten to fifteen years he pays lös. monthly, 13s. 4d. being 
for rent, and 2s. 8d. instalment of purchase-money ; at the end of this 
period the instalments at compound interest have accumulated to £30 and the 
house is then transferred to him with the guarantee of a loan on mortgage of 
£130 at 4 per cent, for at least ten years subject to regular repayments. A 
large dwelling costs about £300, and here the monthly payment until the 
formal transfer in 15 years’ time is 26s. 7d., of which 4s. 8d. are paid on account 
of purchase-money. Some hundreds of dwellings have passed into the hands of 
working people and small craftsmen owing to the operations of the Abegg 
Endowment to the benefit of the tenants’ pocket not less than their health, for 
the moderate repayments of purchase-money have often represented savings 
which might otherwise not have been made. Two defects of the earlier 
regulations have of late been remedied. One was the practice of speculative 
selling which had crept in amongst the owners, and which has now been 
prevented owing to the right of pre-emption reserved by the Abegg trustees. 
The other was the systematic letting of rooms to »lodgers, the result of which 
was to create the very evil of overcrowding which it was the purpose of the 
Endowment to combat ; this practice has also been checked. The houses are 
all substantially yet simply built of brick. 
The " Savings and Building Society of Dantzig ” has built a number of 
working-class houses each containing from eight to twelve dwellings which are 
let at from 10s. to 14s. monthly to members only. The usual accommodation 
consists of a living room, a bedroom and a kitchen, with vestibule, cellar 
compartment and garden ground. Every member must subscribe to the capital 
of the society at least the value of one share, viz., £10, though he may take as 
many as three shares if so minded, and his liability extends to twice the amount 
of his shares. 
Retail Prices. 
I he conditions of the retail supply of household provisions in Dantzig present 
no features calling for special comment, unless it be the absence of complaints 
among the private shopkeepers of .competition from working-class co-operative 
stores, the one co-operative distributive society in the town being so small as to 
be negligiole. (It has only 400 members, whose aggregate purchases, in 1905, 
amounted to scarcely £1,000.) A municipal market hall built at a cost of 
£25,000 was opened in 1896, and affords accommodation for about 962 stalls 
for the retail sale _of fish, fowl, greengroceries, butter, eggs, cheese and bread, 
ft is largely used by workpeople, though it does not appear that the prices