NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 4, 29 September 1944, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Apparently, to judge from a statement by the Director of Housing Construction, there lias been a change in Government policy in connexion with the construction of flats since public criticism of the building of large blocks of multiple flats in Wellington and Auckland found vent in Parliament and the Press. It was then urged that the Government should concentrate upon providing houses instead of fiats, because houses encouraged the raising of families, while flats had the reverse effect, 'rhe Director of Housing now states that, “the erection of blocks of flats for young married couples is contrary to Government policy,” as it has "an undesirable tendency to lower the birth rate.” For this reason, he adds, “the Government has decided to build family houses instead of flats.” It may be wondered why this change of policy was allowed to leak out in a letter addressed to the Westland Progress League instead of being made the subject of a policy statement by a member of the Government. The reason no doubt is to ho found in its habitual policy of reticence in regard to matters upon which the public should be promptly and fully informed, and possibly its unwillingness to admit that its critics were right in condemning the construction of multiple flats when so many married people were so urgently in need of independent homes.

Reference made in the House of Representatives by the member for Waikato (Mr. Goosman) to the substantial amount of money paid in overtime and meal allowances to the staff of the Industries and Commerce Department has served to reveal a curious apparent anomaly. As the member pointed out, the expenditure for this purpose in 1943-44 was £23,493, or approximately £3B a head of the then staff. This is described in the estimates as “over-expenditure due to overtime worked by the staff to cope with large volume of work.” It is customary in such circumstances to increase the number of staff in an organization so as to avoid, or reduce, overtime charges, and in the case of the Industries and Commerce Department this course was taken, up to u point. The staff for 1944-45 was increased from 611 to 653. But the significant fact is that the estimated expenditure on overtime and meal allowances for the current year was also increased—to £2s,ooo—which brings the estimated expenditure per head upto approximately the same level, £3B, as previously existed. In Mr. Goosman’s opinion this indicated “a back-door system of increasing wages,’ and this view—iu the light of the figures as set out—may be widely shared.