t Position Attributed To Health Consciousness Of people

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14568, 12 January 1948, Page 3

t Position Attributed To Health Consciousness Of people

ing Shortage

I .vorv that the present housing- shortage in New pe vwij people are unable to account for m id, wbl f p t / as they point out) that there has been no bf the • preaso in population in the Dominion, is due-to fciable in^ iour ' ne ss of the people who require a standard faith J^the’present economic position allows them and k whl + C n obtain, is advanced by a correspondent signing | the lll xu ~, E ,<ob rrpJoondent states that recent articles in the Bay P e Ss on housing shortage in Tauranga which, pty 1 ®g r f ec tly correct, should have been revealing to r aF f the people who do not know how the other half ialf ®

!ri en, ir. Out : can-

are aware,” states Observer, ‘‘there are many <AS Particularly at Mount Maunganui, which are used i^S av accommodation for a few weeks of the year, aS + 0 Relieve that the owners of such xperionce moV ed from their self-interest to offer Ration to families who are just one degree away from homeless.

0 the 40-hour week is im as the housing shortage '* , as though unrecognised, f Z ‘S was r tandard of homes and the E • families under congh would not be thought Education or enhghtenfeeling of security, and t v of loans, has made it for everybody to strive for standard of living. 90”' adds Observer, the Commission m New Zeand that many workers in -i factories were working a week and other workers rking correspondingly long fe then went to the 48-hour L a 44-hour week. During time a housing shortage n the early days unrecogto lack of enhghtenthe people to higher standid many times carpenters of work. This blows up rv that the present 40-hour the cause of a housing i apart from the fact that rs work considerably more i4O hours. „ . , nntil about 1937, private ;e builders had the building me in their own hands, but ess to them it must be wt they built according to emand. 1 the State put forward its programme there was a cry against the proposals—if complaint being that it iut private builders out of

rm? STANDARD OF LIVING PERMITTED F/y PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS

business and bankrupt the country. Various Chambers of Commerce took a leading part against the State Housing Scheme, but now these bodies complain that there are not enough State houses being built. “The State has built 24,000 homes and it is impossible to imagine where the occupants of these homes would otherwise be living. In addition to this, private builders arc working to capacity on the erection of homes. “With such a demand for buildings it is found that there is not enough labour or materials to build every required house at once. It would be absurd to expect the demand to be met at once. The output of any factory or sawmill and the men employed and trained by employers connected with the building trade, is governed by normal requirements during an average number of years. Employers do not carry a surplus of labour or materials in case of a sudden boom in the building trade. “When this boom arrives, therefore, it cannot be coped with immediately. Each must wait his turn. It is the same effect as if everybody in Tauranga suddenly went one day to the same baker for twice as much bread. He would only have the rtormal daily requirements so others would have to wait until more bread was baked. This would involve more flour having to be produced, more wheat grown and so on, all dependent on available labour.

“I have tried to show,” concludes the correspondent, “that the housing shortage is not due to any one section of the community. It is a cycle brought about by the natural progress of the people.”