STATE HOUSING SCHEME

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22478, 12 August 1938, Page 10

STATE HOUSING SCHEME

Minister Defends Government “TYPE OF HOME SETTING HIGH STANDARD” A strong defence of the Government’s decision to build State homes for workers was the main theme of an address given by the Minister for Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in an address at Prebbleton last evening. Mr Webb dealt with criticism of the type of house being erected, and he was applauded when he told the audience that while the Cabinet was discussing the plan, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, had declared that the homes would have to be “good enough lor any Cabinet Minister.” "We found that the country was faced with a shortage of at least 20,000 homes,” Mr Webb said. “We immediately embarked on preparations for a scheme to alter that. Now, your present member, Mr Kyle, has said in the House that our scheme has interfered with private enterprise. But we have several hundred private contractors building Slate homes for us now. The Government found housing conditions, iq many cases, shocking. It was vitally necessary to do something to rectify the position. People were coming to the cities to work hard and were being asked to live in shocking rooms at exorbitant rentals. We spent something , like £200,000, in the first place, in building joinery factories and others Ip do the work on our State homes.. We leased those profitably to private people. And now these houses are being built on a basis which enables them to compare very favoi *.bly with the homes most workers have lived in in the past, and more tiian favourably with the homes built for the workers in any other part of the world. “Mr Kyle has said that these homes could have been built for £2OO less than our costs. I would- like him to try it. His price would probably be £2OO more. We found, when the Cabinet came to discuss the type of house we would build, that we could have built one for £6OO. But it was to have been a house without many of the our’s have. I will never forget what the Prime Minister said to us. ‘The houses we build for the workers of this country must be good enough for any Cabinet Minister to live in; if they are not, they are not good enough for the workers.’ We feel that by building a high-class home we will eventually set a standard for all homes. All homes in New Zealand will rise in standard. If we build any old shack of a house, that will become the standard. We feel that everybody has a right to a good home, and that from' the point of view of national health alone it must be of enormous benefit for us to have good homes.” Friend of Mr Kyle "I have no apology to make for the Government, nor do I intend to vilify our opponents,” said the Minister, earlier in his address. “Mr Kyle and 1 are good friends, for instance, and I have nothing personal against him. 1 hope he feels the same about me. 1 think he belongs to the age of the Ark; he probably thinks I belong somewhere up near the comets. Bad politics is not a matter for personalities.” , , . The Minister quoted recent changes in the conditions of the Public Works employees as an example of the good faith of the Government. Those conditions were infinitely better than ever before, he claimed. The Government did not say it was enough, but to compare conditions to-day with those of three years ago would make anyone able to think seriously to sit up and take notice. "We are not out to pull down the rich to make rich the poor,” said Mr Webb, “but we can do away with the poor or the need for people to be poor. Every man or woman able to work has the desire for service of some sort in return for remuneration. We cannot live individually, these days; we must live collectively, one on the other. I will say to businessmen that they cannot prosper in business unless they give their brothers, the wage-workers, enough to buy their goods and pay their way.” The Minister quoted figures in his claim that successive reductions in wages during the depression had invariably been followed by an increase in unemployment. All the wage reductions look from the people the money they needed to live on. They strangled business; and business turned the workers out on to the roads to starve. Discussing unemployment, the Minister said that to-day there were actually more jobs arranged, up and down New Zealand, than there were fit men to take them on. There were certainly unemployed who might say that they were out. But while the jobs were available it was not always possible to create them at the backdoors of the unemployed. Often they might have to go out and away to get them. “Will Not Take Farms” “Mr Kyle will say that we are out to socialise the land,” Mr Webb said, when defending the Government’s guaranteed-price policy. “We do not want to pinch your farms. All we want to do is to see that you are able to work your farms and to guarantee you a reasonable income for your labours. You produce food and clothes for us, and you should be paid adequately for those goods.” Mr Webb was critical of the attitude taken by the Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr W. W. Mulholland, particularly over the action of the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) in endeavouring to assist the potato growers. He said that Mr Nash had acted on the request of growers, and sought tor an outlet for our potatoes in Australia and elsewhere. But the ink was hardly dry oft the cablegrams when Mr Mulholland protested against it. Mr Webb said that he did not believe that Mr Mulholland represented the feelings of the farmers. The Farmers’ Union had asked for a judge and a tribunal to decide the guaranteed price. The Government had felt that such a step was not necessary, but feeling that, because ot the representations of the union; it was the wish of those concerned, the Government had agreed, “We had an idea all the same that the dairy farmers themselves would not stand for that. Then the Dairy Conference at New Plymouth gave a vote which supported that feeling and which was an endorsement of the policy of the Government.” Mr Webb said.

“We don’t want to take your homes or run your farms,” Mr Webb said. “We do want to help you„ and we want you to co-operate with us. We can only succeed, in your industry, for instance, by co-operation. You' cannot go as an individual farmer with a portmanteau of butter to London. To sell your products you must cooperate, and we will help you.” The meeting, which was well attended, was presided over by Mr W. W. Harding. Mr T. H. Langford, the Labour candidate for Riccarton, attended and gave a short address. Mr Webb was given a vote of thanks, carried by acclamation.