Annual report on the Malayan Union.

Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Malayan Union. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    131/234 (page 103)
    Chapter VII. (Section 3.) HOUSING CONDITIONS AND PROGRAMMES. Housing in the Federation of Malaya may be classified under three separate heads : (a) Housing of Government servants and estate and mine workers where a positive standard is enforced by administrative direction in the first instance and by legislation in the second. (b) Housing in rural communities, where the type of dwelling, varying according to the race of the inhabitant and evolved through the centuries, develops only by slow degrees in answer to the countryman’s gradually increasing demand for—and appreciation of—the civilised amenities. (c) Private houses in urban areas, where control is exercised to ensure that accommodation does not fall below a legal minimum. As regards (a) above, houses are built to type plans which are under constant examination. It is the policy of Government wherever possible to construct permanent quarters, although this rule has been relaxed during the present housing shortage. Electric light and piped water supply are available in most areas. The great majority of existing Government quarters have now been recon¬ ditioned up to pre-war standards. There remains, however, an acute shortage of accommodation for all grades of the Government Service. The Labour Department, which approves labourers’ quarters on mines and estates, had pre-war set its face against barrack type dwellings in favour of detached or semi-detached cottages of types designed to ensure maximum light and ventilation on sites approved by the Health Department. Steady progress has been made to restore pre-occupation standards, but new building has been hindered by the prior need for rehabilitation. As regards (b) above, the Malay peasant appears to have evolved the most practical and hygienic type of housing in the East, having regard to the climate and his financial resources. Little improve¬ ment is called for in Malay houses although the condition of com¬ pounds and the construction and siting of wells and bathing places still leaves something to be desired, but this is within the scope of the Health Department. The Chinese rural dwelling, on the other hand, is generally speaking as bad as can be from the point of view of light, ventilation and drainage. Obstacles of prejudice, poverty and conservatism have long hindered the improvement of living conditions in these cases. As regards (c) above, the inadequacy of urban housing is one of the most pressing problems with which Government is faced. The hard core of the problem is constituted first of houses which are inadequate both with regard to accommodation and conveniences and secondly of houses which are suitable in themselves but have become a danger to public health due to overcrowding. Both