POINTS FROM LETTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 296, 14 December 1936, Page 12

POINTS FROM LETTERS.

HOUSING SCHEMES,

The daily Tress throughout New Zealand gives prominence to the implementing of a portion of the Government housing scheme. Houses to rent are about to be constructed in several main centres, but no provision is made to cater for the demand in small, towns. Under the scheme houses to rent are to lie erected upon an area of the low-lying Orakei Basin, which borders an outlet for sewage. Many no doubt will consider the location undesirable. The cramped area of one-seventh of an acie upon which it is proposed to erect such homes is totally unsuited to a suburb several miles from the city. This is a retrograde • step, and abundant evidence of my assertion may readily be found upon" inspection of the slum areas. Forty to fifty years ago the one-eighth acre house site was favoured, and to-day slums exist. Increased rates of pay and the shortened working week bring about high rental demands, well beyond the reach of those prepared to occupy what may bo regarded by many as tenements. Certain quarters easy of access to the waterfront - could under normal conditions have been demolished and modern accommodation planned upon modest lines. Harmful legislation has been brought down which has the effect of debarring private concerns from catering for the homeseeker of modest means. A certain inland town some distance from Auckland has for many years past suffered acute housing shortage. The owner of a block of land situate in close proximity to schools and shopping area was approached, and a suggestion placed before him that he subdivide the area into 50 sites suitable for houses to be erected upon.( It was proposed to ercct three or four specimen houses from which intending purchasers might choose a plan subject to suitable alterations and their own requirements. The total cost of section and four-roomed bungalow, with all conveniences, was to be £550 to the purchaser. and in the case of a five-roomed bungalow the total cost was to be £000. In order to cater for the man of modest means a deposit of £50 was in the first instance the minimum, and in the second instance a deposit of £00. The balance was to be paid weekly over a period of years, and a payment of £1 2/0 a week covered interest, principal, rates _ and insurance—all outgoings. Here indeed was a plan to help the homemaker. But what happened? The Labour party went into power, wages increased, the 40-liour week came into operation, building costs increased by 40 per cent (approximately), and a man financing such a scheme would probably have been called a "death adder" 'and taxed out of existence for his efforts to help the worker. The town I write of is still starving for homes, and will be in that position so long as Labour has power. The Government has no plan. The more quickly our dictators admit defeat the better" for the liomemakers of our fair land. Educated men knowing their jobs will carry on.

CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY,