BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20, 1950 STATE HOUSING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 98, 20 September 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20, 1950 STATE HOUSING

The announcement that 50 more State rental houses are to be built in Auckland in the present financial year draws attention to the unsatisfactory condition of affairs in such country towns as Whakatane.

Rightly, the Government has made it comparatively easy for persons in all walks of life to own their own homes. It has tried to educate the public away from the belief that a beneficent State should house all and sundry for low rentals. But State rental houses have been part of our lives for so long that they have become a necessary part. Without the continued building of them, the scarcity of houses can barely, if at all, be overcome for the same Government which introduced State housing must take some of the blame for the fact that private building for rental purposes is not now a satisfactory form of investment. And, in every community, some rental houses are needed for transient population. In the cities, particularly: in Wellington, where the demand is naturally the greatest development of State housing areas proceeds apace but, in the smaller towns, hardly a contract has been let since November. The Government is silent about its intentions in respect of such towns.

It is significanet that, in Whakatane and Edgecumbe, no Stateowned sections have been offered for public re-sale, whereas in similar towns elsewhere, it appears that sections are being offered in groups to test public willingness to build for itself. What is needed here is a clear indication of how many houses the State intends to build and when. A factor which may be delaying a decision is that a large port may or may not come here.