HOUSING.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 95, 22 April 1924, Page 9

HOUSING.

THE GOVERNMENT'S SCHEME. AN UTTER FAILURE. THE HOUSING ACT DEFECTIVE. Mr. H. E. Manning, of Wellington, who has had considerable experience in the practical work of coping with the housing shortage, is at present in Auckland. In the course of an interview with an "Auckland Star" reporter he said:— "Although the Housing Act of 1923 allows' 9.5 per cent advance, it is the worst Act ever put on the Statute Book to assist the worker. What is happening in Wellington. As soon as the Act came into force up went the price of sections. In many cases these sections would never find buyers. Government valuation of a section, say, £100, Government loan £95, worker to find £5 only, cost of section to worker bought at increased price £200; worker has to find £105 instead of £5. The cost of the house, putting it at the lowest, £900, Government loan 95 per cent, £855, worker finds £45; sooner or later the worker has to find the difference of £150. "In Wellington the dummy builder is very active. Some of the timber suppliers have these men at their beck and call. A contract is signed, the merchant supplies everything at top prices, and inferior materials are put in. The Department does not know that the building is under way until they get notice to inspect for the. first draw. When they call all the defects are covered up. I will admit the inspectors are honourable and practical men, but they are deceived by the jerry builder, who is an artist at the game. The final result is that, as the builder can see before he starts, that the worker will be short of £150 at the completion; which has to stand on as a second mortgage, besides waiting for the Government loan until I the London market improves to get a loan, the builder ' protects himself under the agreement so effectually that the £150 mortgage is more like £300. The worker, at present in good work, pays the amount per week, as agreed, to the Department. On tpp he pays a fixed price per week on the second mortgage. He goes along blindly paying a great part of his earnings, thinking that in time he will have a •home paid for. Within a few years, having an inferior building, he has to cut into his income more in repairs and maintenance work to keep the building erect a little longer. At present, and for some time past, the Government has had a gang of men trying to keep life in about 200 houses built since 1919. "The proper rent Pn these houses runs out at 34/ per week, besides tram fares —lOd per day, return. After the tenants got up in arms and refused to pay, their rents were reduced to 28/, and many of them are sitting tight and paving nothing, alleging that the new buildings they occupy arc not watertight, and are never likely to be." How are loans obtained? queried the reporter. "Under the present system, when a worker applies for a loan he has to state what he is prepared to put up, and in some cases the applicant is advised to pick a section and pay his hardearned money down on the' section. Some, ef the first applicants, misled like this, are still waiting for their loan, and are likely to wait: At present I am endeavouring to assist one popr, old lady by trying to get somebody to buy the section and let her get back the £100 she paid down, all her life savings. Hr. Seddon's Scheme. "In contrast. with the existing system, let mc explain the system whicii was originated by the late Mr. Seddon. The worker selected a plan, with the price, on it, and paid £10 deposit. The house was built under perfect supervision; the jerry builder had to keep out. When completed the worker walked in, afterwards paying off at a small rental covering interest and sinking fund "In the year in which Mr. Seddon died he had launched a scheme in Wellington and Christchurch whereby solid concrete houses were erected. In Wellington the houses had nine-inch solid concrete walls, reinforced with barb wire, and not plastered on outside., In Christchurch, houses had five-inch solid walls, not plastered on outside. Although timber was cheap in 1906, these heuses were erected and sold at the same price as timber. Now. it is 1924, and fnr that period the Department officers tell mc that the tenants are regular with their payments and never complain. The very opposite happens with the people in the wooden houses. Many times I have examined one of these concrete houses and found it in perfect order. Government Departmer.t Closed. "It was decided in 1921 tP close the Housing Department, and the architect who' carried o__it the whele of the werk successfully for over 17 years, sometimes erecting as many as 200 houses all over New Zealand in one year, was retired, because he ebjected that his certificates for payments to contractors could be altered by clerks in the office to either larger or'smaller amounts. The same .system is carried on in the chief Government architect's office at the present day. The architect is the only man capable of knowing about what amount is right, and if he makes a mistake he is not fit then to hold the position. "The Government sent for mc as a builder in 1919 to bring down a scheme to solve the heusing problem. It was accepted by Mr. Massey twp days before he introduced the 1919 Act, under which scheme' and the 1919 Act a worker selecting a section, paid the Department a deposit of £10. The houses were to be all of one design, but the frontages varying, introducing standardisation for economical reasons. Walls,' partitions and chimneys were to be of monolithic (reinforced concrete). Contracts for this part were to be let straight put for labour and materials, and for all other trades materials to be supplied and the work carried rj-it, labpur pnly, by contract,* in the different trades. 1 was supplying the timber for "206 houses direct from the sawmills at 40 per cent less than it could be bought elsewhere. When the clerks in the Department interfered with the architect's certificates I protested and stepped my contract for 66 houses. I also stopped supplying any more timber, and held up all the houses under construction in the Wellington province. Then the Department took all my plant and tried to carry on, but after some months' delay the Department found they were in the wrong, and replaced everything. Then the Government agreed to buy mc out and close the Department for ever. Today the Government could assist workers' dwellings by procuring materials at a cheaper rate and distribute them." — :._. _.-■ . -