CITY HOUSING

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 10

CITY HOUSING

REPLY TO MR. SEMPLE

Councillor T. Forsyth said today that the statement made by Councillor R. Semple in last evening's "Post" on the subject of housing in the city calls for a reply.' "Mr. Semple. makes the statement that 'the Government has been responsiblef for driving thousands of people out of thier homes in the suburbs into congested and unhealthy hovels in the city,1" said Councillor Forsyth, "but such a fantastic and inaccurate statement requires some proof, and I challenge Mr. Semple to name the suburbs from whence these thousands were driven, and when. "Mr. Semple then follows his first statement with: 'The State Advances Workers' Department' instituted and developed, mark you, by the Government he so dearly loves to criticise) 'has been responsible for the erection of thousands of working men's homes throughout the Dominion' and in all such cases these workers have been taken out of the densely-populated cities and placed in the adjoining suburbs. "However, I can confidently state without fear of contradiction that during the past four years Councillor Semple has never once proposed or even suggested Ta . municipal housing scheme at the council table, and I suggest if he has a practicable scheme why not elaborate the working and financing of it as a leading plank in his Mayoral campaign. "I am pleased to note that Ifr. Semple does not propose to indulge in personalities. What a pity he appropriated to himself a quite impersonal remark of mine."