FRED TRANSPORT TO WORK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have only just read your issue of September 2nd and have been interested in Mr. Derrick Sington's article on slum clearance in the Ancoats district of Manchester. In Melbourne, in Australia—and I don't know if such a system existed in other States—over thirty years ago, the owners or occupants of any new house or cottage built within a twenty miles radius of the town was allowed two . free daily tickets to carry them to and from their work.
I myself was the first tenant of a small really charming little house for which I paid the modest rental of 13s. a week enjoying the fresh air fifteen miles out of town and going to and fro every day. As it happened, I only needed one ticket, but I was entitled to two if neeessary. One of the great benefits of this journey was that I had a clear hour each day for reading and got through a number of books, otherwise impossible to me in a very busy life : in addition to this it made a good break between my home life and my work on a woman's paper.
It seems to me that some sort of arrangement for free transit might be made in England to bridge over the first strangeness and expense of a move out from congested areas. It is, after all, a case of give and take, for the different transport companies are the gainers by the establishment of families out of the
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