SERVICEMEN’S HOMES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25246, 26 July 1947, Page 8

SERVICEMEN’S HOMES

SECTIONS ALLOCATED BY STATE

SPECIFICATIONS FOR HOUSES (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 25. “The Housing Construction Department has already made available to former servicemen wishing to build their own homes 38 building sections from areas held in and round Christchurch,” said the Minister of Rehabilitation (Mr C. F. Skinner), when asked to comment on a report in “The Press” of a statement by Mr J. R. Smith, president of the Canterbury Master Builders’ Association. Mr Smith had said that if the Government made available sections for returned men so that they could get quotations from reputable builders, there would be no repetition of advertisements by builders specifying that work under rehabilitation loans would not be accepted. “The release of building sections to former servicemen through the Department of Lands and Survey has been an established procedure for several months now, and many former servicemen all over New Zealand are taking advantage of it. "As for Mr Smith’s suggestion that the Government should make the specifications for Jiouses built with rehabilitation loans the same as those for State houses, all I can say is that we have no desire whatever to do other than justice to the former serviceman,” said Mr Skinner. “We will continue to see that he gets value for his money, for even though it is a rehabilitation loan it is still the former serviceman’s own money at stake. Whatever Mr Smith means by his suggestion, we will certainly not permit lower specifications than are consistent with the best materials available. “There is only one thing further to say, and that is to remind builders that rehabilitation is a job for everyone in the country, and that no Government can make a success of it without the co-operation of the whole community. That is only common justice to those who fought for this coun-i try in the war.”