Housing The Poor

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 304, 18 September 1943, Page 6

Housing The Poor

Sir. —I write on behalf of the really poor working people, living in squalid quarters in the Te Aro Flat, Newtown, and other old congested areas of the city, to ask what the Government has done to provide us with decent homes. It is eight long years since we voted for Labour members who promised to build cottages for us. They must know, if they care to make an inspection, that the slums we exist in are not fit for human habitation in these modern times; huts without baths, with rotting floors, leaky roofs, tiny wet and cold backyards, no playgrounds for children, no privacy for mothers. These quarters would be condemned for dairy cattle, but are good enough for poor people; many of us have to be near the city, our work being office cleaning, scavenging, or other poorly-paid casual jobs which require us to be handy to the centre.

For those with families it is a particularly hard life, for we get no chance for these lovely Government homes; some have had applications in for years, but the houses seem to be reserved for those on high wages or salaries. So we are sadly disillusioned people, with only promises of a Utopia when the same Government gets into power. Apparently high salaries, luxurious homes, and palatial offices are reserved for our Labour Ministers and preferred officials. Nothing is too good for them, but for us of tiie submerged tenth, nothing is good enough —vfith a different meaning.—I am, etc., HOPELESS. Wellington, September 16.