MR NASH DENIES END OF HOUSING PROBLEM

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28231, 20 March 1957, Page 14

MR NASH DENIES END OF HOUSING PROBLEM

Emphatically denying that the National Government had solved the housing shortage, the Leader of "the Opposition (Mr Nash) devoted much of his address to this topic at a meeting in Upper Riccarton last evening, when be had an enthusiastic audience of 150, which overflowed the Oddfellows’ Hall.

“It may be quite true that the demand to buy houses has been met, but people can’t afford to buy. And what is the National Party’s answer to the recent Wellington report that a three-line advertisement of a house to let brought a Ngaio family 1000 inquiries in two days?” Mr Nash said. “I can give the Government 200 names of people needing homes.”

In 1951, just round the corner from his home in Lower Hutt, a quarter acre sold for £l6O. But recently one-fifth of an acre, not 100 yards away, brought £3250. The Government had offered eight flats for sale in Auckland at £4500 each for eight months without making a sale. Now it was going to try to let them. Perhaps the rent wouM be £8 a week. In Wellington today, and probably elsewhere, anyone would be lucky to get a house of 1000 square feet for less than £3OOO, Mr Nash said. By paring, the price might be cut to £2600. excluding the section. The State Advances Corporation would not lend more .than £2200 so the would-be home builder went to, say, an insurance company and paid 1 per cent, more in interest. That was 10s a week more on his £2600. Total interest would amount tQ £2 10s a week, rates to 10s and maintenance could be placed at 5s (even though experts set the figure at 3 per cent, or 30s a week as a house grew older). The home-owner would thus pay £3 5s a week for 34 to 40 years without making any repayment. “That,” said Mr Nash, “is fantasy. It is not solving the housing problem.” Cost Structure In 1949 when the Labour Party lost office, New Zealand had the lowest cost structure of any nation recorded in the United Nations. The benefits of a stabilising cost structure were apparent. More could be bought with less money. The cost of living figure was also the lowest on record. •Yet the National Government won office largely on claims that living costs would be reduced and also taxation, Mr Nash said. With one or two exceptions the cost of living had gone up every quarter ever since. It was now 50 per cent, up on the 1949 figure. The cost of foodstuffs was up 70 to 80 per cent, and some commodities had doubled in price. Mr Nash said he recently replaced a book on accounting which he

bought in 1947 for 17s. This year the same volume cost £2 17s. His watch was repaired for more than it cost. Clothing cost increases were such that parents could expect to pay £3O properly and completely to equip a child for secondary school. While this was going on, official figures released yesterday showed that in the last year woollen cloth production had decreased by 21 per cent., flannel by 11 per cent., all woollen production by 5 per cent., and all knitting yarn and hosiery production by 8 per cent Women’s footwear was down by 160,000 pairs, boy’s by 50,000 pairs, and men’s by 46,000 pairs. “We ought never to buy any but New Zealand shoes. Those made in New Zealand and in Christchurch in particular compete with any in price, comfort, and quality.” Banks’ Profits J Mr Nash also touched on the international situation, the credit' squeeze, and other matters. Hr. would examine with interest the balance sheet of the “celebrated* . Tasman Paper and Pulp Company? whose losses now totalled* £2,250,000. He hoped “the many* people who are going Home wilL get a better trade agreement than that with Australia.” He alleged! that trading banks gain©® £4,500,000 a year when rates went up and bank overdrafts increased from the £81,000,000 of 1949 to £190,000,00 in three years and were then brought back to about £167.000,000 today. Even allowing £500,000 for working expenses that still meant £4,000,000 a year extra profit, yet these banks had not done a jot more in loan services to the country. Taxation recently collected amounted to an average of £ll3 7s 2d a head compared with £72 Is 7d in 1949, Mr Nash said, an increase of 58 per cent. The overseas debt had gone up by £20,000,000 in three years.