WORKERS' DWELLINGS

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 22, 26 July 1920, Page 8

WORKERS' DWELLINGS

Sir, —I see by your issue of the 21st inst. statements made by the Housing Department which are incorrect. I don't wish to enter into any controversy through the press, as my time is too fully taken up. I am. relying on tho Prime Minister to investigate the matter thoroughly. This he has started to do, but from the correspondence I have received from, him I found that the information given was very incorrect, < and 1 have drawn his attention to the fact. Any previous .statements I have made I can stand by. As the shortage of houses is very acute throughout New Zealand, there should be a tribunal set up at once to inquire into the present trouble and the working of this Department. I have been asked to stop writing to- tho Prime Minister and the press. All I have done so far is to correct any incorrect statements published, in the .meantime I am going on with the contracts, and await Mr. Massey's decisioa, trussing that I will get justice

From the Department's statement that other builders have not suffered regarding payments I beg to differ, as some of them have been waiting weeks to get the architect's certificates met. They say that, when tenders were called in September, my tender was the only one that could be accepted. I never put in any tender, but wrote' on the closing date to say ■ that I would not tender, and got an acknowledgment of the letter. It was afterwards that the Housing Board got me to bring down a scheme to try and help them out of the difficulty, and the Prime Minister signed accepting same at 1 a.m. on the 16th October. I took the concrete portion on contract and the re mainder on the percentage basis. They say my last payment was for erecting a hut on the site. This is not correct; it was principally for wages paid out on their behalf and for material supplied them on other sites. The .liens and claims they mention I question. When they say that my sureties expressed their satisfaction at the way I had been treated, well if any of them said that, 1 hope that if 3s. inquiry is set up, they will come along and repeat it. They say that by my contraots I should have had 33 houses completed. I only had tho water put on to No. 1 contract »ix months after I signed it. The Department refused to pay tho' council its fees, so I was humbugged sill through for water and with water. When ever it rained, most,of the sections were knee-deep under water for weeks, and the concrete mixer for weeks was surroundbd with water. Besides, when the water subsided, I was not allowed to fill in until the excavations had dried up. Sometimes just as they dried up, it rained again. I am still short of a few pieces of angle iron to complete my patent plant. I have tried the whole of New Zealand, but it is unprocurable. I was given to understand that if I could not get it, the Department would try and get it from tho other Government Departments. I have not yet received it.—l am, etc., H. E. MANNING. 35th July.