HOUSING PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 75, 21 December 1934, Page 2

HOUSING PROBLEM

Tcn-year Plan Suggested

WELLINGTON CONDITIONS

Commenting upon the reviews of the housing position in Wellington which have been published in “The .Dominion” recently, Mr. W. Stuart Wilson said yesterday that the outstanding problem in the city at present was the proper housing of Its people. “I have been hammering on the problem, in season and out of season, for the last 16 years,” he declared. “But the people of Wellington are hard to move Ou such vital questions as this. It will be remembered that I challenged Cr. R. MeKeen some years ago, and said that I would pay £lO to the Plunket Society if lie could prove his statement in (he City Council that women and children were living in garages and tents in this city. “An informal housing committee was appointed With Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, the then Mayor, as umpire, and after an exhaustive examination of the conditions existing in Te x\.ro Flat and elsewhere in Wellington, I had to hand over the £lO to the society, as Cr. MeKeen's statements were proved to the hilt. This caused a sensation at the time, and the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, then Prime Minister, made a personal inspection. The result was that hundreds of thousands of pounds were spent in the Hutt Valley to relieve the conditions in Wellington.

“Since then the conditions have gradually grown worse, and it has become clear that we need a ten-yeai-plan, for the purpose of eradicating the awful conditions which prevail in the Te Aro Flat district to-day, and which are a reflection on the intelligence of every man and woman in Wellington.” Mr. Wilson suggested that the first step toward better conditions would be for a meeting- of prominent citizens to be called, when proposals for a policy to be pursued by the civic authorities during the next ten years could be put forward and discussed. A decision to this end should be made immediately, and the meeting held at the close of the holiday season, so that Wellington would have made at least one New Year resolution of which it could be proud.