DANTZIG.
171
are somewhat frequent in Dantzig, especially after drinking bouts. With
reference to this, Commerzienrat Gibsone observes : " It is highly discouraging
to the Municipal administration which expends every year nearly £50,000 on
education, £27,000 going to the elementary schools, that a majority of the
hooligans and knifers are young people, who not long ago left the elementary
school. The overcrowded dwellings are an effective breeding ground for roughs
of this kind, and the demoralizing effect of spirits does the rest.”
The typical working-class dwelling in Dantzig consists of a flat of either
two or three rooms, together with a separate compartment in the cellar and the
use of the loft space beneath the roof for drying laundry. The closet arrangements
are good in so far as there exists a modern drainage system combined
with the general use of flushing tanks. In the newer houses the closets are on
the stair landings, usually in the proportion of one to every two families. In
the older houses these conveniences are more frequently in the yard or air shaft,
sometimes in the proportion of one to eight or ten families.
Through the courtesy of the Municipal authorities it has been possible
to ascertain the rents of 3,180 working-class tenements in different parts of the
town and suburbs. Of these, 1,570 consisted of two and 1,610 of three rooms.
The following statement shows the predominant rents which were being
paid in 1906 in four different parts of Dantzig with large working-class
populations :—
Predominant Weekly Rent.
Two Rooms.
Three Rooms.
Old Town
Niederstadt (South, intra-mural)
Alt Schotland (South, extra-mural)
Schidlitz (West, extra-mural)
Together ..
2s. 4(7. to 3s. 3d.
2s. 4d. „ 3s. 6d.
2s. Id. „ 2s. 6<7.
Is. 10Æ „ 2s. 4d.
2s. 4d. to 3s.
3s. to 5s. 9d.
3s. 6<7. to 4s. Id.
2s. 9c?. „ 3s. 8(7.
2s. 8(7. to 3s.
3s. 6(7. to 4s. 7(7.
It will be seen that in the two suburban districts of Alt Schotland and
Schidlitz, which are comparatively new, the rents both for two-roomed and
three-roomed tenements are lower than in the two older, intra-mural districts of
the Old Town and Niederstaãt.
Comparing these rents with those for Berlin and representing the latter by
100, the figure for Dantzig is 49.
These rents include water rate but no other element of taxation for local
purposes. Here, as elsewhere in Prussia, the bulk of the money îequired for
local purposes is derived from a Municipal income tax, which is levied by the
Municipal Authority at the same time as the State income tax, and bears a fixed
proportion to the latter. In Dantzig this proportion is 188 per cent., and all
incomes over £21 per annum are subject to the tax. The following 1 able shows
the amount of yearly income tax for municipal purposes payable on the different
income classes within which the majority of working-class families would
fall
Yearly Income. | ¿nmoiR ^ ?az.
Over £21 to £33
„ £33 „ £45
„ £45 „ £52 10s.
„ £52 10s. to £60
„ £60 to £67 10s.
„ £67 10s. to £75
„ £75 to £82 10s.
„ £82 10s. to £90
„ £90 to £105 .
£ s. d.
0 4 6
0 7 6
0 11 3
0 16 11
12 6
1 10 0
1 19 6
2 8 10
2 18 4
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