FAIR RENT

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 112, 12 May 1916, Page 2

FAIR RENT

DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT

WHAT ARE THE GOVERNMENT'S

INTENTIONS?

Leave to introduce a Rent Bill was moved by Mr. Payne in the House of Representatives yesterday.

Speaking to the motion, Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh pleaded with the Prime Minister to deal with the question.

Mr. Massey : You will get it before the end of the session.

Mr. Hindmarsh referred to the case of a man in Wellington who owned over 200 houses, and was increasing rents. That, said Mr. Hindmarsh, was not the only case. He did not see why the Wc-Jliiiglon people should be made to sutler in time of war. It was useless to suggest that it could not bo done. It could be done by a, few lines in an Act. Interference with rents was not a new idea. Similar statutes had been in force for years in Ireland an,d Scotland. Mr. Wil'ford, supporting the Bill, said the reason that private members' had brought in such Bill was because the Government bad careft/ly concealed tho fact that it intended to deal with the subject. If that had been' stated in the Governor's Speech no private members would have interfered. The matter was urgent, and members were entitled to know what it was intended to do. He himself had instances from Petone of landlords who had raised the rent on poor tenants by as much as 7s a week. Later on he- would put tho names of those landlords on record. Mr. Wilford went on to say that he\ considered the Hon. J. Allen a baa- to recruiting. He was out of touch with public opinion.

The Prime Minister asked if the attack on the Minister of Defence was in order.

Mr. Speaker said the reference made by Mr. Wilford to the Minister of Defence had nothing to do with the Bill, and was consequently out of order. Mr. C. H. Poole contended that as the necessary information was not forthcoming from the Prime Minister, private members were quite justified in introducing their Bills with a view to obtaining a proper discussion.

Mr. G. Witty congratulated the. three members who had brought in Rent Bills. If the Prime Minister would only take the members into his confidence-

The Prime Minister: I have already said there is legislation coming down. I can't say more than that.

Mr. Witty urged that the necessary legislation should be brought down to keep down the cost of living. Mr. P. C. Webb, who recently returned from a visit to. Australia, said that a Fair Rents Board was in existence there. He quoted instances where tenants had to pay exorbitant rents out of small wages. ' The hope was expressed by Mi. J. Vigor Brown that when the Government brought in legislation dealing with the question it would insert a clause to the effect that no landlord could pass on any taxation he had to pay because of his wealth.

Dr.' Thacker, after congratulating the private members on their Rent Bills, said that the true cause of the high rents in Wellington was the concentration of humanity —the camps and commercialism. The position here had become so1 acute that it was necessary for members to introduce private Bills. The solution would be decentralisation in Wellington.