16,000 HOUSES

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23858, 29 January 1943, Page 3

16,000 HOUSES

“TRIUMPHANT BAIT” MR DOIDGE’S CRITICISM OF POLICY “I believe the National Party with private enterprise can best solve the housing problem. We pledge ourselves to give to those persons who occupy State houses the right to purchase the freehold if they wish, though we will not disturb those who wish to continue paying rents,” said Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P., in speaking with Mr M. E. Lyons, National Party candidate for the Christchurch East by-election, at the Civic Theatre last evening. One of the promises given by Mr Sullivan, said Mr Doidge, was that the people would get 16,000 houses, and the Government candidate had improved on that by saying that the houses would be for soldiers. Electors would agree that the housing position in New Zealand to-day was absolutely scandalous, and when the men returned from overseas there would be many for whom there were no homes. “I want to know why Mr Sullivan offered this triumphant bait right here in Christchurch East,” said Mr Doidge, "when the proper place was on the floor of the House, where it could have been discussed and analysed. Mr Sullivan, when he comes here and tells that story, is just a pedlar of dreams.” For years, Mr Doidge said, they had not built that number of houses. Voice: Daniel is in the Lyons den now. (Laughter.) Private enterprise, said Mr Doidge, had built far more than the State, 5000 last year and 7000 the year before. Mr Armstrong himself had stated last year that thousands of people were living in New Zealand in abominable conditions, and that was after seven years of this Government in office. Mr Armstrong had also said that New Zealand needed 50,000 houses. At the rate the Government was building, what hope was there of catching up. He had also admitted that every year 2500 houses were due for demolition. That was the position the country was up against to-day, and electors would have to agree that the Government policy was all wrong. What working man, Mr Doidge asked, with £5 or £6 a week, could afford to pay 32s 6d a week, or old age pensioners 18s a week? In Wellington, he said, co-operative building societies had built thousands of houses, and in one suburb were Government and building society houses alike as two peas. On the latter £25 was paid as a deposit. By the time a husband and wife qualified for a pension of £3 a week they would have no rent to pay, but in the State house they would still have to pay 32s a week. “CAPITALIST RUSSIA” MR DOIDGE TO RAISE QUESTION IN HOUSE "At the next meeting of the House,. I am going to suggest to Mr Fraser that the time has arrived for New Zealand to send delegates to Russia to study the capitalist system in operation. And for preference lam going to suggest that we send to represent us Frank Langstone and Walter Nash!” This statement by Mr F. W. Doidge, M.P., at a meeting attended by about 1200 persons at the Civic Theatre last evening was greeted with applause and laughter, and with some derisive calls from a small section of the crowd which periodically interjected throughout the two and a half hours in which Mr Doidge and Mr M. E. Lyons, National Party candidate for Christchurch East, addressed the meeting. Some years ago, said Mr Doidge, Stalin asked for the huge loan of 4,00p,000,000 roubles for defence, for war preparations, as much as France and Great Britain had been spending together. Stalin got the loan, he said, because to-day Russia was the outstanding capitalist country of the world. Stalin had realised that he had to abandon Communism to get the people to work. (Cries of “Wrong”) Mr Doidge: Yes. And he gave 4 per cent, interest, and Mr Fraser gives only 2i per cent. Russia had completely abandoned Communism seven years ago, Mr Doidge said, and he intended to bring the matter before the House in the next session. Some time ago Mr Roosevelt had received from the American Ambassador in Moscow a confidential report stating that the principle of Communism had been abandoned, that the working men in Russia got what they earned, and that the profit motive was manifest everywhere; that the Russia of Lenin and Trotsky no longer existed; and that their Government also gave constitutional protection to civil and religious liberty. CONFIDENCE IN MR HERRING LABOUR PARTY CRITICISED “The present House might well be termed a Kathleen Mavourneen or a Tennyson’s ‘Brook’ Parliament—apparently it may go on for ever,” declared Mr Horace Herring., Democratic Labour candidate for East Christchurch, amidst laughter, when speaking last evening in the Hiberian Hall. The candidate was supported by Mr J. A. Lee, M.P. Mr M. E. Flannery, who presided, announced that Mrs Lee would arrive in Christchurch next week to participate in the campaign. The meeting, which was largely attended, signified its confidence in Mr Herring by assuring him of its support on polling day. Though there had been some slight interjection, there was not one voice raised in opposition when the resolution was put by the chairman. “It is a curious coincidence that so many Cabinet Ministers have found urgent business in Christchurch just now,” said Mr Herring. "Obviously we have given them something to do, and better still, something to think about.” The candidate contrasted the position of the House of Representatives with that of the House of Commons, where, he said, the members had been in constant consultation with the Government. “Why are they not called upon to do their duty?” he asked. A voice: They must have a rest sometimes. (Laughter.) “You must devise some method of controlling your members of Parliament.” said Mr Herring. "It is not just a matter of electing them.” The candidate criticised his former colleagues in the Labour Party for not adhering to pre-election policy. "They showed tremendous courage in Opposition,” he said, “but once they got into office it seems to have oozed out of their finger-tips.” Mr Lee prefaced his remarks by replying to an interjector who had called “turncoat.” “Now I would like to ask you just who are the turncoats?” he said. “Are they not the men who have not fulfilled the financial promises made by the Labour Party, promises that are equally as sound and as binding now as when they were uttered.?” “Never in my political experience have I addressed such a chain of successful meetings as in this by-elec-tion,” he said. "Unless you listen to whisperers at your backdoors, I am confident of the result. Doubtless Christchurch East will be flooded with literature next week as in the last by-election. You will be told that I am the man who was ‘kicked out’ of the Labour Party.” “It is very flattering to know, of course, that we have brought nearly all the Cabinet and half Parliament to Christchurch in an effort to neutralise us,” concluded the speaker. “But I have not the slighest doubt that on polling day with Mr Herring as our candidate we Will be able to neutralise the whole Ministerial platoon.” (Laughter.) ..