They, under the advice of one
of the highest authorities on town planning, Mr. T.H. Mawson, have given
an estate adjoining the town, which will be laid out in an attractive
manner, with avenues arranged to afford pleasing prospects. The primary
object at present is to provide homes in the neighbourhood of a factory
to be erected where disabled soldiers may engage in some kind of
suitable manufacturing work, but the scheme is intended to be permanent.
The houses will be near the factory; there will be playgrounds,
drying-grounds, probably garden allotments, a hostel for single men, a
reading-room, and some place of amusement. The development of industrial
villages by private enterprise, encouraged in every possible way, is one
of the most hopeful things to look forward to in the rebuilding of
Britain. There can be no greater pleasure for anyone who has any vision
of what the future of housing accommodation for the working classes may
be than to read Mr. Mawson's charming volume on "Industrial Villages for
Partially Disabled Soldiers and Sailors as an Imperial Obligation."

Another useful means of improving the conditions of housing for working
people has been adopted in many places by carrying on the movement
initiated by Octavia Hill. Property has been acquired and placed under
the management of some voluntary association, usually of ladies, who
will collect rents of reasonable amount and see that the property and
its surroundings are kept in proper condition. Various associations of
the kind have been established; the Manchester Housing Company, Limited,
may be taken as an example of such arrangements for managing urban
cottage property. In the last report it is stated that the Company has
owned or managed 114 houses, and the directors are assured that the
sanitary conditions under which the tenants are housed have steadily
conduced to the lowering of the death-rate. The personal interest taken
in the tenants as well as in the houses by the managers has had a
marked influence for good. The scheme is self-supporting, and in 1917 a
dividend of 4-1/2 per cent, was paid.

Lastly, there should be some method, provided by public authority,
through which workers or other persons of small means can become owners
of their houses. Building societies came into existence with this
object, and were put under statutory regulation by the Legislature in
1836, and subsequently by an Act of 1874. In many cases facilities given
by buil