STATE HOUSING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 129, 24 February 1939, Page 11

STATE HOUSING

Aims Of Government Outlined REPLY TO CRITICISM Minister Defends Scheme By Telegraph—Press Association. MOTUEKA, February 23. Referring to suggestions made from time to time by city councils that the Government housing scheme was catering for one class of person, he who was in permanent employment and on a good wage and even then if he had only a small family, the Minister in Charge of Housing, Mr. Armstrong, pointed out in an interview today that since the overwhelming majority of people were in employment naturally the Government was catering for the employed. The alternative would be to build houses of slum standard for the depressed section of the community. “I cannot agree, however,” said the Minister, “that we are catering only for those with small families. Our rentals for new houses are generally lower than anything charged for new housing of equal quality in the last decade. Where a person has a family some of whom are earning money, our rentals for a large family are exceedingly moderate. For a large family with no child yet earning, after next month Labour is providing in the social security schemes a motherhood endowment of 4/- a child and is doing more to make the circumstances of such a family easy than has ever been attempted in any part of the world. “The rentals chargeable for our housing should set the maximum standard, because our housing is the best working-class housing available today. Because of the acute housing shortage left by past Governments our rentals set a minimum standard. The best way to get cheap housing is not to reduce the standard but to aim at accelerating the output, as Labour is at present doing, by increasing the number of skilled craftsmen engaged in house building. Record Total of Houses.

“It is well to appreciate that last year’s total of new houses was the highest in New Zealand’s history, and that this year should mark a similar increase. However, the stabilized conditions created by the Labour Government have brought an increase in marriages, increased purchasing power and other (beneficial results which are expressed in a greater demand for houses. Last year’s number of registered marriages was the highest on record, 'being exceeded only in the year In which the soldiers arrived back from the war. Obviously a large number of marriages which had been delayed during the unprosperous times when house building liad practically ceased started to occur the moment Labour took office, in addition to which the birth-rate started to move up. If the rate for the present year is maintained a new record will be set, and there is a possibility of the marriage rate being the highest in New Zealand’s history, (exceeding even that subsequent to the Great 'War.

“All these factors have accentuated the shortage, and, of course, the community has never found it possible to add tremendously to the housing requirements in any one year. ’To house the community decently requires a long period of sustained activity so that an army of craftsmen can gradually be built up. Only cumulatively can the problem be solved —not in any one ye'ar. With the’ Labour Government in office the output of new houses will increase steadily.” CONTRACTS APPROVED Cabinet has approved of further contracts for the construction of dwellings under the State housing scheme. 'Twenty houses are involved, and of this number three are to be built in Lower Hutt. Daniel Bros, have obtained the contract. A contract fur the construction of eight houses in Masterton has been awarded to W. Rigg, Ltd. A contract for drainage at Lower Hutt has been Obtained by B. Egley. MAORI HOUSING Three Hundred Homes In North Auckland Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, February 23. Arrangements for the erection of 300 houses in North Auckland, some for indigent Natives, but most for Native settlers, have been made during the last IS months by the Public Works Department, acting as construction authority for the Native Department. The sites are widely scattered. The Native Department decides where and for whom a house is to lie erected and chooses the design from a number prepared by the Public Works Department. Already 170 houses have been finished and the staff of 130 men is turning them out at the rate of 20 a month. Thirty of the men are skilled pakeha carpenters, who have been training the 100 Maoris employed.

Many of the Maoris have shown such aptitude in the use of tools that they are now carrying out unaided the complete erection of houses, with only an occasional visit from supervisors. The average house consists of a sit-ting-room, two bedrooms, and a combined bathroom and washhouse, but they vary in size to meet particular requirements.