A SOUND PRINCIPLE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 155, 29 December 1925, Page 6

A SOUND PRINCIPLE

If dwellings in the Hutt Valley model settlement are erected, as the Advisory Committee hopes, so as to cost £l or a little more per week, there is certain to be a keen demand for them. Probably there are hundreds of workers in Wellington who will be anxious to secure ci home upon such favourable terms. The Advisory Committee is acting wisely, therefore, in determining to deal with applications not on the system of first come first served, but so that the more deserving applicants may have first consideration. This is a principle which we have long contended should ibe applied by Uifi Advances Department in granting housing loans. The State cannot build houses for all the (jt't>l-j|f. in till? uuiliiLry ; Hor ctitt it; Jiiaauce house-jbuildiiifi bl ftU> Au

attempt to do so would strain the Dominion's loan credit, and leave other public enterprises starved for funds. Already the National Debt haß been greatly swollen by loans for building and mortgage redemption. The demand for loans will be checked by higher rates of interest, but even so it may be greater than can be met. In these circumstances it appears imperative that discrimination shall be exercised so as to assure that the funds available are used to the best advantage. Men with small incomes and large families are under a big handicap either in renting or buying a, home. It is to them that relief should first be given. At the same time the committee is quite within its rights in seeking to prevent speculation in the houses which it builds. Whether the measures proposed for this purpose will prove fully effective is more than can be said at present.