ELBERFELD.
227
lighting of the approaches, &c. The local rule at Elberfeld is yearly tenancies
as from the first of May, and save in exceptional cases rents are paid at the end
of each fortnight or month.
Elberfeld cannot by any means claim to be free from slums. In a town
with so many antiquated buildings of the timber and plaster type, buildings
crowded together end to end and back to back without regard to considerations of
space, air, and light, such an immunity would be impossible. The old Berg
houses are from the standpoint of sanitation very defective, but perhaps the
least desmible dwellings are found in the quarters of the town inhabited by
the poorly paid workers in the chemical industry. Yet the public authority
is keenly alive to the sanitary aspect of the housing question, and its efficient
system of inspection, carried out by specially trained officers, powerfully supports
the efforts of the sanitary and building departments of the municipal service.
This system of inspection was introduced in 1899, and the first thorough investigation
covered nearly four years, as a result of which 1Y8 per cent, of the
dwellings visited had to be scheduled for attention. A second inspection in 1903
led to complaints being addressed to the users or occupiers of 112 per cent, of
the dwellings visited ; in 1904 the percentage was 12. In the latter year the
grounds of complaint were as follows:—(1) Too little light in the bedroom,
23*7 per cent, of the whole ; (2) Insufficient air space in the bedrooms, 24 7
per cent. ; (3) Persons of different sex sleeping in the same room contrary to
regulations, 40 per cent. ; (4) A combination of the complaints 2 and 3, 115
per cent. These figures disregard damp, defective water-closet accommodation,
contravention of the lodger regulations, &c. The taking of lodgers is not made
directly dependent on police permission, except when persons of different sex
are taken, but it is required that notice shall be given to the police within
six days where rooms are to let, stating how many lodgers are taken and how
they are housed. It is forbidden to let to lodgers rooms which communicate,
even by a locked door, with the living and bedrooms of the rest of the
household. The same space per person, viz., 343 cubic feet, must be provided
as is prescribed in the case of bedrooms generally, and a separate bed must be
provided for each lodger. In 1904, 1,188 rooms were let in 700 dwellings to
2,378 lodgers ; in 1903, 1,220 rooms were let to 2,425 lodgers in 661
dwellings.
Kents have for some years been declining on account of overbuilding,
induced by excessive speculation, which in its turn was encouraged by the low
rate of mortgage interest, and the professional house-owner complains that the
present rents, taken in conjunction with the high local taxes, makes his vocation
a very unremunerative one.
The following table shows the predominant rents of the two and threeroomed
working-class tenements of which the rents were obtained for the
purposes of this report :—
Number of Rooms per Tenement.
Predominant Weekly Rent.
Two rooms
Three rooms
2s. Gcf. to 3s. 6d.
4s. to 5s. 9d.
Kent at Berlin being represented by 100, the corresponding figure for
Elberfeld is 57.
The municipal income tax falls on all incomes exceeding £21. In the case
of incomes liable to the State income tax, viz., those exceeding £45, the local
super-tax was 200 per cent, of the State tax in 1906. Lower incomes were
assessed at assumed rates of 2s. 4 - 8d. on amounts between £21 and £33, and 45.
on amounts between £33 and £45, and the local super-tax was 125 and 150
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