The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-16 00:00:00

rangements necessary to comfort and health.
(Cheers.) They hoped at the present meeting to
have the support and assistance of a number of gen-
tlemen who have been considering the matter, and
who might now have everything explainedto them.
In Ware, Mr. Hanbury and some other persons had
erected model cottages, which had answered well.
They were not very economical, but he referred to
them as instances of success in giving good accom-
modation in the dwellings of the poor. He invited
the inhabitants of the town to take part in this good
work, assuring them that, while they got some re-
turn for their money, they would be largely re-
warded by the satisfaction they would feel at know-
ing that, through - the instrumentality of this com-
pany, they had increased the health and comfort of
those amongst whom they lived. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. R. DIMSDALE, in moving the first resolu-
tion, said as far as he had been able to ascertain,
public attention first began to be called to the sub-
ject of cottage improvement in the year 1832, when
the cholera broke out and committed great ravages.
In 1837 the subject was still further pressed on the
attention of the public by the alarming prevalence
of typhus fever; and Dr. Southwood Smith, in the
course of some investigations he made in 1838, dis-
covered the startling fact that out of 77,000 'per-
sons relieved under the poor law in London, more
than 14,000 had been subject to fever, mainly owing
to the bad and crowded state of the dwellings in
which they lived. Attempts were made to rectify
such a state of things, and in 1842 an association
called the Metropolitan Association was established
for the purpose of improving the dwellings of the
poor. That association was founded on the prin-
ciple of shares, but at that time there was no
Limited Liability Act, and so the company was
obliged to obtain a charter from the Crown, which
cost £1,400, an expense which had very much crip-
pled the company from the commencement of its
operations. Two years later, the Cottage Improve-
ment Society was established, on a different footing,
not by shares but by subscriptions ; and ultimately
that society obtained £40,000 to carry on its opera-
tions with. That society built cottages, and then
mortgaged them, so as to obtain money for build-
ing more; and he hoped they would be able to do
something of the same kind at Hertford before
long. One gentleman had told him that he thought
the company should make some arrangement or
advancing money to landed proprietors to build
cottages ; and he (Mr. Dimsdale) thought that much
good might be done by carrying out that sugges-
tion, and lending money for the improvement of
cottages, as was now done by the Drainage Com-
missioners for the drainage of land. Associations
for improving the dwellings of the poor had been
established in various parts of the country, and on
the whole the result had been very satisfactory. At
Windsor a joint-stock company was established in
1852, with a capital of £6,000, and power to raise it
to £lO,OOO, which had been subsequently done. The
Windsor society was at this moment paying a divi-
dend of 6 per cent. An excellent society had been
formed in Marylebone, where there was a state of
things which could hardly be conceived, even by
those who were acquainted with the towns of Hert-
ford and Ware. This society, however, had only
paid 21 per cent. in consequence of having bought
up bad property at a heavy cost, and spent immense
sums of money in erecting comfortable dwellings in
place of the wretched old ones. But at Liverpool
the society had,been more successful in a financial
aspect. It had completed 22 cottages on a plan
which was more expensive than any of the models
of those lying on the table before him, and the cost,
including land, was £4,200. The rentals, at 4s. or
ss. a week, produced a gross income of £3OB per
annum ; and after deducting £9B for repairs and
bad debts, there was enough to pay 5 per cent. on
the outlay. If the Hertford Company obtained
such a result as that they would be very well satis-
fied. The society at Hastings had paid a dividend
of 6 per cent., having started with a capital of only
£B5O, which had been increased from time to time,
and now amounted to £3,500. The society at
Brighton paid 5 per cent. It had been said the
establishment expenses of the company would be
so large as to swallow up all its profits. But he
held in his hand an account from the Brighton
society, showing that that society only paid £23
a year for salaries, and £6 for incidental expenses.
The report of the Ramsgate Society showed that
the preliminary expenses did not amount to more
than £22 125.; and as this company had received
£lOO in the shape of donations, it was clear that it
could be established and get a fair start without
intrenching at all on the share capital. He had
been told that there were certain landowners in the
neighbourhood so favourable to the company that
probably they would be enabled to purchase their
land on very reasonable terms--in fact, at a merely
nominal price ; and if so, there could be no doubt
they would be able to pay a fair dividend. He had
met with individuals who said they could not
take shares in this company because they did a
good deal in their own parishes; but he believed
that excuse often came from gentlemen who were
doing very little, and that it was merely an excuse
to save their own pockets. But whatever gentle-
men were doing in their own parishes, he hoped
they would not let it prevent them assisting this
company in carrying out its laudable object. One
pleasing incident in the reform which had taken
place in the matter of cottage improvement was
the extent to which large manufacturers were
building cottages for their work-people, and he
hoped that through the example and influence of
this company the landowners of Hertfordshire
would be induced to build suitable cottages for their
labourers on their estates. If it did that, it would
indirectly do much good, in addition to the direct
benefit it would confer cn the working classes by the
improved dwellings it might be able to erect. He
thought the present prospects of the c mapany
were very good. They had already got 300 shares
taken, and as soon as the number amounted to 500
the directors would be prepared to purchase a plot
of land, and begin to build some of their model cot-
tages. According to an estimate which had been
furnished him, comfortable and convenient cottages
might be built for £BO each. The rent of these cot-
tages he thought they might calculate at about £6
each per annum, which would be a little more than
six per cent. ; and after striking off one per cent. for
repairs and one per cent. for a reserve fund, they
would be able to pay from four to five per cent. to
the shareholders. As showing; the importance of
providing good ventilation, Mr. Dimsdale quoted
from the report of a French physician a statement
to the effect that scrofulous diseases were almost en-
tirely attributable to a deficient supply of fresh air ;
and he stated that in Sheffield there was a plot of
wretched cottages called the " Barracks," where the
mortality was exceedingly great, but ventilating
shafts having been introduced into the chimneys, a
considerable diminution in the number of deaths was
the immediate result. Dr. Farr had stated that the
annual rate of mortality ought not to be more than
seventeen iji a thousand, but in the metropolis it
was no less than thirty-three in a thousand, show-
ing that a large proportion of deaths in the metro-
polis arose from preventible causes. Mr. Dimsdale
then stated that this meeting had been called to see
how far the tradesmen of the town were prepared
to s-ipport the company. If the scheme were not
taken up by a certain time it must drop, for it could
not long go on floating between heaven and earth,
as it were ; but he hoped the result of this meeting
would completely establish the undertaking. Hee'
concluded by moving the following resolution :
" That the erection of model cottages and the im-
provement of existing dwellings for the labouring
classes is an object deserving of every encourage-
ment."

Mr. I. J. GRIPPER, in seconding the resolution,
said there was one important argument in favour
of the object of the company which had not been
touched upon.. They were doing all they could to
educate the poor and to improve their morals, but
this would be useless unless their dwellings were
improved. In this and other towns many of the
poor were obliged to live in wretched hovels, where
there was not proper sleeping accommodation for a
family, and such a state of things must almost in-
evitably counteract any attempt to improve their
minds and their morals. It could not be expected
that the tradespeople of Hertford could take a large
number of shares, but if a good many of them took
a few shares each, they would very materially as-
sist in establishing the undertaking.
The resolution was agreed to unanimously.
Mr. J. W. CHESSHYRE, in moving the next reso-
lution, said they must not anticipate a large return
for the capital they invested in this company, and it
occurred to him that Mr. Dimsdale had mentioned
a rental which was rather more than the labouring
classes could afford to pay. One of their principal
objects should be to provide the poor with a decent
and convenient dwelling, at a rental which they
would be able to pay, and at the same time have
something left with which to procure the common
necessaries of life in abundance. He believed the
rents of cottage property in Hertford averaged from
2s. to 2s. 10d. a week, and as the object of the com-
pany was to benefit the labouring poor, he thought
they must be content to receive ls. 9d. a week for
their cottages. That was as much as a labouring
man, under ordinarywood circumstances, could afford to
a year for every
pay ; and that
coud beob
plot prfoduce a gross income of £9
informedNdyierreectorsvvere two cottages, which they
owners
and would perhaps sell some of
fulilt for £l6O. Some of their
some of it to the company
and in the neighbourhood,
theycould couldhoi get half an acre
at a moderate price.
with
the'ld on it six model
of land for £l2O, they
at land, would cost
cottages, which, together
as
much as
on
£6OO. Letting those cottages
ofa rental 4 of ls. 9d.
a-week, would produce a return
built for
the outlay, which he thought was
.as they
ought to calculate on in such an undertaking. The
cottages which he had referred to as being