THE COTTAGE PROBLEM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THR "SPECTATOR." j SIR,—May I suggest that the ideal cheaply constructed cottage is not altogether visionary, and that as regards a simple tenure equal to freehold the 999-year leases of the Residential Small- holdings Company, whose beautiful estate at Sharnal Street, Hoo, Kent, which I have twice visited, appear to be a solution any Government might adopt ? This company has already dealt in a practical way with sanitation difficulties to their residences by means of chemical salts at a nominal cost, and w.c.'s discharging into an oxidizing tank on wheels. This installation does not exceed a cost of £10, and it provides an immediate fluid fertiliser which has proved most valuable. The company, I understand, are considering the erection of a new type of model cottage which are to be built on the unit system of two-storeyed rooms in box-like fashion, giving thus the greatest strength and rigidity. There are five rooms in two units, all of good size, i.e., one 15f I. by 10ft. 9in.; two 10ft. 9in. square ; two 10ft. 9in. by 7ft. 9in., small pantry and w.c. These units are framed up in timber and can be easily moved on lorries, which will meet the varying demands of small- holders who farm more or less land from time to time, and who, as their families grow or diminish, add or subtract one unit. The roofs are to be reed-thatched locally, and the walls covered with an imported pulp sheet at a cost of lid. per yard. two thicknesses, about tin. thick, on the outside, and japanned and made rigid with a cheap especial varnish or a tinted tar compound. These units, from various estimates received, are not likely to exceed a cost of £100 for the five-roomed cottages, and will be stood on the usual iron steadies screwed into the ground at about £6 the set. In alternative, if much moving is contemplated, the unite will be permanently fixed on a patent iron wheeled trolley at a cost of 215 each. It is proposed to lease these units at about is. 3t1. a week each, to include sinking fund, so that the small- holder can look forward to owning his home in old age, which, although movable, is just as much his home as a brick-and-mortar house, and will last just as long, being an hygienic abode free from creeping damp, with its destruc- tive action both on the structure and health of the house and inmate. Moreover, if on wheels, no right exists to levy rates and taxes, nor is it ever likely that such abodes of the poor will be penalized by an especial tax. These cottages are startling innovations, but the more they are considered the more the many advantages of such struotures appeal to those who know the hesitation of the landowner to build in bricks and mortar for such varying demand as must always exist in the countryside, and which would wreck the many schemes already promulgated by "Back to the Landers" and [Provided the pulp sheets do not contract and expand, and so let in the weather, we see little objection to the proposed system. The great thing is to try experiments. The cheapest cottage, provided it is weather-tight and sanitary, is the best cottage.—En. Spectator.]
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