JAUNDICED VIEW OF DOMINION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 304, 5 October 1946, Page 5

JAUNDICED VIEW OF DOMINION

MINISTER REPLIES TO MR GREENBIE POISONOUS BALDERDASH (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 4. “Poisonous balderdash and an outburst written for monetary gain, based on a jaundiced view of New Zealand as seen through the confused spectacles of a politically biassed mind,” was the description applied by the Minister of Works (the Hon. R. Semple) today to the article written by Mr Sydney Greenbie entitled “New Zealand’s Uneasy Utopia.”

The Minister said he was not concerned so much with Mr Greenbie’s description of our faces. The observation that they were “essentially plain” wc* a matter for argument, but that wo all had “blue eyes and brown hair” was so obviously inaccurate that he could not believe American readers would place any more confidence in it than they would in his other equally ill-informed statements. “As an individual, I treat this diatribe with contempt,” said Mr Sempre. “If that is a fair example of the reporting of a member of the United States Information Service, then one may be excused from expressing the hope that the United States Information Service requires better instructed, more intelligent observations from other spheres than it would receive from Mr Greenbie in this case. “As Minister of Housing I take note of his unfavourable comparison of our housing with housing in America,” continued Mr Semple. “I can only assume that Mr Greenbie has not travelled extensively in his own country. He portrays the average American family living in well-designed comfortable, convenient homes in quiet, healthy environments—green lawns, trees, shaded paths, the occupants unflurried and undisturbed by the continuing menace, of a soul-des-troying government such as we have in New Zealand.

Conditions in America Now

“But let us look at another picture arising out of the general survey of housing in the United States made under - the auspices of the Housing Committee of the Twentieth Century Fund in 1944. The factual findings of this research committee include the statements “The housing stock as a whole is in a deteriorated condition. In urban areas more than 23 per cent, of all dwellings had no private bath in 1940 and more than 10 per cent, were in need of major repairs. In rural communities these percentages were higher still. Of houses either needing major repairs or without private bath 6,200,000 were in urban areas, constituting almost 29 per cent of the urban supply. Disregarding the lack of private baths in rural areas, 4,300,000, representing more than 27 per cent, of the rural supply, Avere in need ot major repairs. These deteriorated, under-equipped, out-of-date houses represent a demand for replacement and repairs that might become effective if the price structure efficiency of the house-building industry was geared to realities’.”

Mr Semple said that leading American visitors without an axe to grind had been generous in' their praise of New Zealand conditions and particularly of the Government houses, which had been truly described as the “best working-men’s homes in the world.” At least New Zealand families had a place in which to bath and wash their necks, which was more than could be said for 16,000,000 American families living in American homes without private baths.

Can be -Improved

“I do not intend to convey the Impression that housing conditions in New Zealand cannot be improved,” said the Minister. “No one recognises the need for,an improvement better than I —as witness the Housing Improvement and Slum Clearance Act, which has been made law by this Government. We are a young country by comparison with America; we are following an energetic tree and shrubplanting campaign and the treashaded paths and lawns will come In time. „ , . . “My advice to this self-appointed critic, who has chosen to speak in insulting terms of some of the aspects ot New Zealand life, is that he should devote his energies and time to clearing slums in his own country.”