TEN THOUSAND HOMES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 205, 24 May 1919, Page 9

TEN THOUSAND HOMES

SOLDIERS' AND MINERS' NEEDS "Ten thousand homes at once,'" vas.! the order of Mr. E. J. Howard (secretavy of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council), who spoke on tho housing problem at yesterday's session of <lie Town-planning Conference. Mr. Howard opened his speech by observing that he proposed to be eminently practical—to como down from the clouds that the conference has occasionally got into. He believed that before any general townplanning scheme was gone on with, it was absolutely. essential that an adequate housing scheme should be embarked upon. They must lmvo a housing scheme at once, not' some time.in the i future. They bad to do something now, and not wait for town-planning. He'claimed that Now Zealand wanted at. least 10,000 houses nt the present time. There were two sections cf the population from whom .trouble might be expected if something was not done to provide enough decent' housing. The first section comprised the minors. (Mr. Howard at this 6tage had a number of slides screened to show under what conditions tho miners lived.) When people complained about the slowness . of the miners in delivering coal, he said, they should remember how some of the miners had to live, how their women had to go on with no doctors, no decent a doommodation, no jifovision of hot and cold water, no benutifnl parks, no palaces to look at—and all this in a part of tho conn try that was as pretty as any, on God's earth. He knew of 2(10 miners in Christohurch at the present .tiine who refused to live under the conditions of mining life, and would not cut coal until something was done to help them. If something was not done to house, tho returned soldiers -Klsp. with tho wives were bringing with them, the country. would be face to face with trouble. The Government should bo aslced . to build 10,000 homes at once, to set up factories in every centre to build standardised fittings. Two architects, two engineers, and two practical buildors should be allowed to takei over .£3.000,000, borrowed from the Government free of interest. If tho Government did wipe off the interest, it would not be doing anything more than it ought to do m (he interests of the returned - soldiers alone.. The eum of would not provido 10,000 houses, but it would enable a substantial start to be made. The "velocity of the return." from the first houses would enable the Test of the scheme to be gone on with. ' ' He did not/believe that the housing problem was "going to be solved by the local bodies. He did not think it reasonable to expect from members of local bodies, who already Tendered a considerable amount of unpaid service, much more than they gave at present. Tho matter was one for the Government. Ho was not blaming the Government for the present state of affairs, but ho vas blaming the people who "merely sat down and did not care a hang." . Governments moved when the people moved' them, and if the., people wanted the suggestions he had made to be earned out, they could have them carried out, ]>e was 6«rb.' ' , • In the dicsussion upon a committee report, the Hon. G. W. "Russell later commented upon what had been said of the miners. Ho believed that the "divine discontent" of the miners and their anpirations for better conditions ought to be encouraged. The miners ought, however, to bo shown what they could do for themselves in the way of bettering thoir surroundings. They received good wages, ..and they should bo encouraged to spend some of them upon the establishment of co-operative clubs, StarrBowkett societies, and other such institutions, which would assist them to' obtain more comfortable conditions. Health officers throughout the Dominion had; been instructed to prepare reports upon all the mining townships in order tlini might be taken.