APPLICATION FOR STATE HOUSE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 3

APPLICATION FOR STATE HOUSE

FALSE DECLARATION ALLEGED

MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL (P.A.) AUCKLAND, October 6. On a charge of making a 'false and untrue declaration for the purpose of obtaining the allocation of a State rental house from the Rehabilitation Department, Frank Matthews, a waterside worker (Mr Haigh), came before Justices of'the Peace in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. Lawrence Raymond Perotti, field officer of the Rehabilitation Department, said he examined the housing position of returned servicemen who applied for State houses. On May 30 he went to a house at 11 Cracroft street, Parnell, where accused lived. Accused answered the door and said he was on compensation from the wharves as he had injured his back. Witness was shown the house by accused and his wife and was told that three males slept in one of the bedrooms upstairs and four females in the other. The "bathroom” consisted of a tin bath in the washhouse. “As a result of my investigation I recommended that accused be given high priority in the aHocation of State houses,” continued witness. His grounds for making this recommendation were the partial separation of the husband and wife and cramped living conditions. Cross-examined, witness said he now knew that accused had been a prisoner oY war for two years. Adrian Gover, Rehabilitation Department field officer, described his inspection of a flat at 95 Bassett road, Renuiera. He said the flat was very close to being selfcontained and conditions were excellent. A childless couple would be comfortably housed in such a flat in the housing Conditions now prevailing. Witness’s recommendation for an allocation would have been fpr deferred grading, which was the lowest priority rating possible.

Evidence of Owner of Flat The owner of the flat at Bassett road, Richard Patrick Boland, said accused and his wife had lived in the flat from August 26, 1946, to approximately June 9, 1947. The . flat was almost self-contained. He understood accused had come to live at his flat from a place in St. Stephen’s avenue.

A declaration made out by accused in his presence, in which accused said his place of residence was 11 Cracroft street, Parnell, was produced by lan Mcßeth, clerk in the Rehabilitation Department. The declaration was required before an applicant could accept the tenancy of a State house. Accused told witness that his statement was true and signed it as such. As at result of the reports submitted, priority was recorded, which enabled an allocation to be made to accused of a State house at Kain street. Mount Eden. Detective Moore gave evidence that when he interviewed accused on September 5 accused admitted that the signature on the declaration was his. He declined to make a statement. Accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail of £5O was allowed.