WORKERS' HOMES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1911, Page 3

WORKERS' HOMES.

■"■■'■■ «•> ■ ' ' AN INTERESTING DEBATE. THE HOUSE EXPRESSES APPROVAL. ERADICATION OF SLtTMS. LEGISLATION WANTED. "If *fe desiKd to ewct all the buildings Aak«d for we would have to 'raise * loan of half a million to start with," | eaid tite Minister for Labour (the Hon. J. A. Millar) in a discussion on the Workers' Homes Act tft Parliament yes* terday afternoon. The diecusmort arose 6u* of the pf esehtAtion of the annual repei t on the working of the Act, the main features of which were published in The Post yesterday evening. Wheft the report was presented, Mr, M'Larefl asked for details. The Minister read them ac published, adding that blocks of land had been purchased at Island Bay (containing thirty-three sections), and a block at Karon* just the other side of the tunnel (about thirty or forty sections*. Neg6' tiations were proceeding for, land outside, other towns, but he was not goiag to acquire land at eucli a price that a working man could not afford to pur« chase. He had endeavoured to keep the price- of a. section down to J650. He hoped to have the dwellings in courso of erection in two or three months. He had as much land as he could find the money to build houses on, and when they /were finished more would be built. It was impossible to> meet the demands of everybody. They were coaiitig in in thousands frqm all over the country, and to meet all the applications he sup. posed ho would fleed a quarter Of a million of money—allowing £350 to £400 per hottse. Mr. field : Would you not do well to bay more- land in Wellington suburbs while land is cheap? Th© Minister: No; not it 1 have "to pay interest on the cost until 1 call erect dwelling* on them. Mr. M'Laren : How eooa will buildings be erected? The Minister: I think a start will bo made on some of the section© within a month. , Mr, M'Laten: In Wellington. The Minister: I won't say where ? b*canee tho moment 1 say where it •'$ .everybody else will be wanting a start made. Mr. Herdnian asked what was the position of the Nfti Nai and Mudgway Estates at Lower Hutt. | LARGER' SECTIONS. Mr. Q. W. Rus&ell said he had m< dewtood that in some paffts of the Do* miftioi* the Minister had laid It down that ho was not going to give more than £30 for a section. That woald dearly mean limiting the area of the section*, but he (Mr. Russell) urged that if such email areas were insisted on they were going to* create slums, in his opinion they should provide much larger areas^-as much as two or three acfes— on which the worker a-nd his children would be drawn to A country life. Further, lie thought the homes should be erected further in the suburbs and mor« use mad* of the railways? y for the carriage of the workers to and from their work at a minimum faresay £1 a year. SUBURBAN LAND. """*"" Mr. Field again urged on the Minister the necessity of buying areas of land in Wellington Subftrbs, where it could be bought a,t abottt a quarter of the price asked at the time of the land boom some five yeate ago. It was not likely to become any cheaper, and if it was cut up at once, and built on he Was sure the hooSes Would be occupied' immediately. In the various farming district*, esped ally abottt Wellington, farm labourers experienced great difficulty in procuring houses at a reasonable cost on a reasonably' eized piece of land, and it would be a wigs course to acquire blocks of land and erect houses for the accommodation) of those people. Mr. R, A. Wright wanted to know what wae being done to acquire land at "Vogeltown, and what was being done in regard to the applications which had' com© from workers there? . WORKERS IN CITIES. Mr. Poole pointed out that thousand* of workers working in the cities mwt liv« in the cities, and some effort should bfl made to provide proper housing for them. Some of the places in -which they had to live, he added, w«r© a disgrace to our civilisation, and yet they were compelled to live there, and put up with the existing conditions. Some echeffl* should be put irt hand whereby the OoveMlfient or local bodies should provide terraces or flate. •Mr. J, P. Luke complained of the treatment accorded by the Advances to Workers Department to a settler on the Hawtray Estate, who (required £195 to erect his house, and was offered only £160. The Minister,,, he added, had alwaye shown a kind regard for the worker, but if h« was not possessed of eufficient powers to do what, was neceseary the House should give the Government that power, "If the Government will only aek for it they will get ;.it," he added. ! TOWN PLANNING. Mr. Fisher said the Art was a*> dot** lv interwoven with the Town Planning JBill that th© Minister should havo a. •talk with, the Minister for Education, who had <sh»rge of that Bill. His idea was that Parliament Would hay« to undertake the clearing of the Blufli ( areas— a duty which the municipalities had , shirked. That was why he regretted I that the Town Planning Bill was to ba j dropped. As to the areas at the Hutt he wanted to know what was being done with them. The Hon. J, A. Millar : They vte)te transferred to the Land for Settlements Department some years ago. Several other members also spoke on various phases of the subject. *