STATE PURCHASE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 5

STATE PURCHASE

OLD-TYPE HOUSES ALSO BUYING DAIRY FARMS j (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Further development of the State housing policy, the provision of homes for large families at rentals in conformity with their small incomes, was announced to the House of Representatives by the Minister of liousing, Mr. Armstrong, last jnight. This was a problem which jhad to be faced, said the Minister, jand the Government had just decided to set up a committee which would be representative of women's societies, social workers and Government Departments to go into the question of accommodation for large families of poor people. The Government was determined to take this in hand immediately, and in the meantime the State Advances Department in Christchurch and other j !parts of New Zealand was buying, houses already built, some of older) types. The houses were quite solid! and with a little alteration the De-j partment was bringing them into! conformity with modern require-l ments so that they could be turned! into homes for large families at jmore moderate rentals than would be possible if the Government had to build new houses. State housing was spreading out, continued Mr. Armstrong. It was building in 129 different places, had bought land in 121 different towns, sufficient to build 23,000 houses. ! "And we are still going on buying ,land," continued the Minister. "While the war is on we will use all the labour we can get. and if we! cannot get sufficient carpenters and.

bricklayers we can get labourers to make roads, construct sewers, do development work and put in foundations so that as a form of repatriation we can employ every returned soldier who knows anything about building and send him right on the job." Discussing the diminished labour supply, Mr. Armstrong said eighteen months ago the Department had 6000 men employed, but owing to enlistments this total had been reduced to 4200. Altogether £16,252,000 had been spent by the housing branch since its inception, a large percentage of this money being used for buying land years ahead because roads had to be constructed and sewerage and water supply provided. There were dairy farms which they owned, but were rented to the former owners till the Department wanted them for housing.