HOUSING PROBLEM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 59, 19 December 1945, Page 2

HOUSING PROBLEM

R.S.A. TAKING MATTER UP

FEELING THAT MORE COULD BE DONE

“Bronchos of iho Returned Services’ Association all over New Zealand are taking up the housing problem ” said the district vice-president of the Association (Mr C. Milnd), addressing over ICO returned men at the quarterly meeting of the Ashburton branch last evening. “It will probably be from five to 10 years be>ore the supply overtakes the demand. The construction of houses was badly retarded bv the war ; but many people feel that more could be done than is being done. The Association has frequently raised the question of luxury building, but it seems easy for some people to get around the regulations. The shortage of materials, particularly items which have to be imported, is another retarding factor. There were about 210,000 houses destroyed by bombing in Britain and an infinitely greater number damaged. The British returned Tommy is as much entitled to a house as the returned Kiwi, so we cannot expect too much assistance from British exports. “It would be fair to step up the priority of returned men for State nouses from 50 to 75 per cent, for a couple of years,” Mr Milne said. “It, would be a good thing if there was absolute priority of building materials for houses being built on loans from the State Advances Corporation. This has been suggested to the Dominion Executive.” Houses Not Full One speaker expressed the opinion that not enough use was being made of available houses. He knew of several instances where one person was a house, which could accommodate two or three. There was not much that could be done about that, except to appeal to occupiers .to make their premises available to those in desperate plight, said the president (Mr W. G. Welsh). There were many instances of returned men and their wives and children living in one room. Mr Milne said the Association was not satisfied with the speed of land settlement. At the rate things - were going, it would be a long time before some returned men were settled on farms. More could be done to speed up the acquisition of land for returned men.

Urging the men to keep themselves informed of the activities of the Association, Mr Milne said criticism usually came from thofee who lacked information. He appealed to members to be chary in criticism of their own organisation, which in turn had to be sure of its facts before presenting individual cases to the authorities.