The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1937. SURVEYING THE HOME. TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1937. SURVEYING THE HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1937. SURVEYING THE HOME.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1937. SURVEYING THE HOME.

For the oauae that lacks assistance, For the icror,g that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that vie can do.

There was a time when it was currently believed that a man's house was his castle, that he could lock the front door, and, going out into the garden, sit under his own vine and fig tree, none making him afraid. We have changed all that, rightly, for housing is a matter which affects the community as a whole, but the investigation of the homes of the people now to be undertaken will go into detail with a completeness never before attempted. The Act was put on the Statute Book by the National Government, but it was not enforced prior to the election.' The Labour Government having enunciated a new housing policy, it was generally anticipated that the Act of 1935 would be quietly shelved. The Government has decided, however, that it wants the information, and local authorities are now handling a series of schedules which demand the most intimate details of every household, in New Zealand. The investigation might easily become inquisitorial, and possession of the greatest tact must be the first essential of thej investigators, otherwise there are possibilities: of trouble when what are regarded as private! and personal particulars—such as who sleeps ini each particular room —are demanded. Householders, on their part, will also require to be tactful and courteous, and to recognise that their interrogators are carrying out a duty imposed on them by the State. Costs do not seem to be matters of importance at the moment, but an examination o£ the schedules will convince anyone that a very expensive inquiry has been started. The collection of all the data required, even if all be cheerfully and willingly given, will be enormous when the whole of New Zealand is included in the survey. Personal inspections will have to be made of every house, and many forms filled in by the investigators themselves. The census Collection is child's play compared with the mass of detail now required. The cost has been thrown on the local bodies, which seems hardly fair. They have their local inspectors, who keep an eye upon houses on the decrepit list; they will need to appoint new men for the job of making the survey, and they will have to pay good wages for the class of men required. It will take many weeks to obtain the information, and cm addition to the budget of the relatively small local authorities thus implied is a serious matter. If the Government requires the information, it should bear the costs. Local authorities can keep a watch on decaying homes at much less expense than is involved. The subsequent collation of the information will be another huge task, and it will be many months before the final results of the survey are known. In many suburban districts there are no slum areas or areas calling for. /special treatment. Concentration on the congested quarters would shorten by months the date at which the information would become useful, and would greatly hasten the work of rebuilding or rehabilitating, and that would seem a wiser course. However, the local authorities have been instructed to proceed with the survey, and they will have no option but to carry it out. Ultimately the taxpayer and the ratepayer will have to bear the cost; if it were concentrated into one course, however, there would be a Bounder realisation of the relation of cost to effect, and the Government should therefore fdot the bill. When the information is complete the housing position will certainly be accurately defined as it exists to-day. But the Government proposes a very active building campaign all over the Dominion, and before the information has been fully tabulated and dissected it may be so out of date that little value will attach to it, except in so farras it relates to the overcrowded areas.