HOUSING PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 30, 5 February 1935, Page 8

HOUSING PROBLEM

(To the Editor.)

" Sir,—ln your report of a paper read by Mr. N. C. Haigh, A.RJ.B.A., before the Royal Sanitary Institute, he states that there are certain causes for slums, overcrowding, lack of housing, and the inability of the individual to possess his own house.v I cjuite understand that given the proper conditions, there are several men, even in Wellington, who could build a Garden City on the lines dra\yn by Mr. Haigh. but provided those causes are not eliminated such a word-picture as painted by him cannot be materialised.

Mr. Haigh asserts that there are only two ways \sy. which to deal With the problem. 1: By subsidy. 2. By lowering rental values. In my opinion they are one and the same thing. It is not possible to lower rental values under our present.-social, laws except b.y subsidy, i.e. taxing some to benefit others; To give people houses at lower rentals than supply and demand warrant can only be done by Government subsidy which Government can only get by taxation.

The high cost of land is cited by him as the cause of high house rent. High cost or fictitious cost of land is

brought about by (1) legislatively subsidising sectional interests; (2) by the system of private ownership of land making it possible ;to forestall the would-be user of land and giving him a legal right to appropriate the accumulated values of social amenities, general material progress and the results of increased population. These values are of course the property of the people who made them, namely, the community. The high cost of material (wood, brick, cement, etc) and'all fittings is brought about by (1) Government subsidies to particular companies and private interests (2) general Custom.Duties(3) 25 per cent, false Exchange Rate (4) general taxation. ,■.'■■":•' .-"■-'■•

The cumulative results of the operation of the above causes, coupled with the fact that the economic, rent" of- land goes into the pockets: of the private owner instead of the Public Treasury, ai-e sufficient to, account for slums, overcrowding, inability of individuals to own their house OTd ■ the lack of security of tenure to a piece of his native country whereon to live, produce and rest. The elmination of the obstacles to trade will not of itself solve the problem. Great Britain under comparative free trade had the most appalling housing conditions, as Mr; Haigh must know, while in "protected" countries the conditions were no worse. Freedom to trade must be accompanied by freedom to produce at a profit in order to enable theworkingman to produce for himself, houses, food, and clothing. Living in a Garden City would not make life any easier were the necessities of life wanting. :

To sum up, poverty is the cause of the housing problem, and the cause of poverty is the denial of free access to the source of wealth and therefore capital, namely the land. The system of private ownership of the natural resources is then the basic cause, but is a system which Mr. Haigh terms a "noble ideal."—l am, etc.,

E. W. NICOLAUS