STATE HOUSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 16, 20 January 1939, Page 9

STATE HOUSES.

SKILLED LABOUR SHORTAGE. REQUEST FOR LOWER RENTALS. (FrrWn Otlf Correspondent.) CHRISTCHt'RCH, Thursday. Describing the position in gome cities n* "desperate," the Minister of Housing, the Hon. It. T. Armstrong. *»ai'l that the need for expediting the progress of tlie present State housing plans .was extremely urgent, Mr. Armstrong said the ituilti difficulty 1»» Hip wav of the Department's achieving its object whs the shortage of skilled labour; if WWO more skilled tradesmen were available, the Jfoiislnjr Department could give them work tomorrow. The Government. however, wa* ating measures which it was hoped would result in more men being trained fOf the skilled trade, and that promised to provide, in time, ail improvement in the present position. The position was that it. was the Government s objective to build .".000 State houses a year, and Iterative of the shortage of iaboiir It wan building only 3<mh>. A refiuent that lower rentals for State house* in rural areas he considered was put to Mr. Armstrong in his tour of inspection of Departmental work yesterday. Roth at Kalapoi and RangWa the Argument was put forward that beemwe of lower rates, possibly lower building costs, and certainly smaller initial charge* for sections, there Was ii case for the revision of the existing scale of rentals as they affected reeldents of country town*. The Minister's reply was that he hoped that in tittle to come every decent working man could live in a house as L r,iod as the new State bne*. If some men were not earning enough to allow Hint, then surely the logical action was to ralec their incomes.