WORKERS AND RENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 167, 15 July 1914, Page 5

WORKERS AND RENTS.

j ARE HOUSES TOO DEAR? j j LAND AGENTS SAY NO. | People iuteiested in hoiw and land I property seen this moniing siergeoted that the strictuics of Mr. I. V. .Viar.ci-, S.M., us to rents in Auckland "yetting -.an daloit.-h high" were somewhat t<> •. sweeping. The Magistrate was Id t-, make his remarks by the complaint of a defendant iv a maintenance ea -c lo th.- eß'ecl that he \va» jwyiug it)/ p-r v.e-'k tur four rooms and a scullery. ami vvas asked 30' a week far a four-rojniTl hotißC iv Albert Streei.. His Wo: bin added that he hoped the legislature or the City Council woiilil take iv lianJ v scheme which would enable the working man to get a house at a rent bearing sonic proportion io it? value instead of being unreasonably bled. One agent said no one would deny t.iiat rents were high, but high as they were, they did not always give a. reasonable return after allowing tor rates, taxes, insurance and a fair amount for depreciation. "One of the most difficult problems we have to deal -with,'' he continued, "is the aveioion that people have to go out of town. They must be right in the middle of things, and then complain that the rents are high. You have the greatest difficulty in getting tenants to go beyond the penny section of the trams." Turning to his books he picked out at random a five-roomed ihoitsc in Grey Street at 18/ per week, and a six-roomed house in Ponoonby at 21/ per week. ».nd said they were about average rents. The agent pointed out that with such a keen, demand for houbfs handy to the city as there was at present, there was bound to be a. uig demand, and the places -went to the highest bidder. GET OUT OF TOWN. "In my opinion," he Tcmarked, "the solution of the whole housing difficulty is a cheap, fast and frequent, transport service, to induce the working man to go nut into the suburbs and relieve the coi -nation in the towns. Nowadays, pe. i insist on having plenty of room, ar. he Ihouse.; are spread out over a m wider area than they would be in th: Old Country, for instance. To show what cheap and rapid transit means t may mention the case of an office in London, where one of the clerks lived ten miles away, and the office boy, thirty-six miles, both of them coming to aud from work every day. Of coarse, we liave not the population here to support such a service, but we could have better facilities than at present."' Another thing the "Star's" informant mentioned when dealing with the abnormal values of land, was that in this country most people wjio had any nionev tc speculate with, put it straight away into land. It was about the only thing in which to invest money. In oldeiU countries more money was invested in commercial concerns. REASONABLE RENTS. Another agent i7ho was approached said it was not faij to suggest that 30/ per week was the average asked iii Auckland. He confirmed that statement that working men, and, in fact, rur.it people, had an aversion to going far out of town. Quoting from his book*, be mentioned four-roomed cottages ai Newmarket, in first-class order, at 14/6 per week. A little further on he had five-roomed houaes, witib. every convenience, at J7/0 per week. Those prices, he said, were about the average for cottage, not immediately in the c-itv. He pointed out that it" would be unreasonable to expect houses right in the city to be as cheap. Other places mentioned as giving a good indication of the icuts prevailing were some cottage-s at hiie penny section in Parnell for 14/ per week, and eight and nine-roomed houses at 30/.