MINERS’ HOSTELS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 127, 14 March 1950, Page 2

MINERS’ HOSTELS

COMMENT BY FORMER MINISTER (P.A.) GREYMOUTH, March. 13. “It may have been Mr Sullivan’s brand of arithmetic which led his colleague, the Minister of Education, to suggest recently that more attention should be given to teaching the ‘three R’s’,” said Mr A. McLagan, the former Minister of Mines to-night. He was commenting on Mr Sullivan’s statement that the cost of the miners’ hostel’ at Gvanitv, accommodating 50 men and estimated to cost £63,000, would work out at nearly £ISOO per man. “If the miners could have their earnings calculated in that way, the resulting 19 per cent, increase in wages would certainly be appreciated,” continued Mr McLagan. “If tlie- accommodation position at Granity has so improved that the hostel is not now necessary that is all to the good, but it is hardly an occasion for blatant party propaganda based on an absurd miscalculation. Both Mr Holland and Mr Sullivan have had a lot to say about the cost of workers’ hostels. They might well give little more information about accommodation costs. “For instance, Mr Holland could publish the cost of the new Prime Ministerial residence in Wellington, and Mr Sullivan could publicly calculate its cost per occupant.”