HOUSING SCHEME CRITICISED

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22240, 3 November 1937, Page 12

HOUSING SCHEME CRITICISED

CHARGE OF CREATING MONOPOLY

POLICY DEFENDED BY MR LEE

CFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter]

WELLINGTON, November 2

The debate on the Imprest Supply Bill (No. 2) was enlivened this afternoon by an attack which Mr W. J. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo) made on the Government housing scheme and the reply from the Under-Secre-tary in Charge of Housing (Mr J. A. Lee). Mr Broadfoot charged the Government with creating a monopoly in the building trade. Mr Lee gave some interesting figures, in his reply, about the joinery factories operating in association with the scheme. "I think the Government's housing scheme is a parasitical growth on our political life," said Mr Broadfoot. Before the scheme was introduced there were ample builders and carpenters to carry on the work that was available, but through its housing scheme the Government had created the biggest monopoly in the building trade that had ever been seen in this country. It had damaged the small builders to such an extent that to-day they did not know where they were. "I would like to know who conceived the idea of building two huge joinery factories in the North Island?" Mr Broadfoot asked. "Was it the Under-Secretary in charge of Housing, Mr Lee, or was it the big builders? I 'o not think they were necessary and I consider that when they were built they were put in the wrong place. They should have been nearer the sources of supply. The big builders got them anyway and all the implements of production were bought for them-" , , A defence of the Government's housing policy was made by Mr Lee. The last Government one year, he said, had granted only 11 State advances loans for housing, but a survey recently completed in Mr Broadfoot's own town of Te Kuiti showed that there was an estimated shortage of 40 houses in that town alone. "Members of the Opposition have been expressing concern for the small builder," Mr Lee said. "It may interest them to learn that Cabinet yesterday approved of building contracts which will give employment to more than 30 small builders in various parts of the Dominion." The erection of the joinery factories for the housing scheme had also been criticised, said Mr Lee. If there was one point in the scheme which could be defended above all others it was the erection of those joinery factories. The one item in which the Housing Department had not been faced with increased costs was joinery. The land for the factories had cost £14,000. The plant, bought before prices rose, had cost £BOOO and the Government was getting a return of £3OOO a year from the contractors who were running the factories. Another advantage arising from a long-term contract with the operators of the factories was that the joinery was being supplied cheaper than anywhere else in New Zealand.