HOUSING NEEDS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 194, 30 May 1945, Page 5

HOUSING NEEDS

PRIORITY RESOLUTION. FALLACY SEEN BY MINISTER. l (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 29. “I don't want to enter any controversy over this matter, but I do think that the fallacy of their resolution should be pointed out,” said the Minister of Works (the Hon. R. Semple), commenting on the resolution advocating “absolute priority” for housing passed by the executive of the South Island Local Bodies’ Association at a meeting in Christchurch last Friday.

“It is the Government’s concern,” continued the Minister, “to equate the building force available in all its types of tradesmen—carpenters, bricklayers, concrete makers, etc.—to the material supplies so there will be no unemployment by reason of the admittedly -short- supply of certain classes of critical materials, and so that the works undertaken bear a proper relationship to the national needs and economy. This cannot be done if local needs only are considered—there must be a national outlook in deciding what works shall proceed in various localities, and that can be exercised only through those responsible for allocating priorities, the Ministry of Works and the Building Controller, having full and complete knowledge of the overall position. What may appear to some to lie cases of injudicious building operations would have ample justification if only flie full facts were known. “One fact that must never be lost sight of is that it is not enough that we provide only homes for former servicemen. Industrial buildings must be provided for them to work in, hospitals for their children to be born in, schools for their children to he educated in, and so on, trying always to preserve the proper balance between all types of buildings.

Home for Soldiers. “In conclusion, let me say that provision of homes for returned servicemen is a Task that troubles me more than any other individual task I have, but, nevertheless, I am proud of this Government’s achievements in this direction to date. More than 18,000 State houses have been erected since the Housing Construction Department commenced operations in 1937, 13,300 of them since the outbreak of war. Some State houses, of course, were occupied by servicemen before they joined . the services I don’t know how many, but no doubt quite a considerable number—and 3130 have been allocated to former servicemen since the Rehabilitation Department, as part of its functions, became associated with the State Advances Corporation in the letting of State rental houses. This is a worthwhile contribution to the problem, more especially so when cognisance is taken of the fact that had the materials and manpower used in our defence construction programme been used on housing construction instead, there would have been 23,000 more houses in New Zealand, and no housing problem for anybody io worry over. “New Zealand leads the civilised world in what it has done in home building. Adding private houses to State houses, more than 29,000 homes' have been erected in this country during the war years; Compare this with Australia which, with four times our population, has erected only 354 houses since the outbreak of war, or with the United States which, with its population and resources, has not erected a single house. “I wonder if any of those who passed this resolution can point to any other country in the world that has done so, much for the civil life of its people while still pursuing as vigorous a war policy as this little connin' pursued.”