'NOT TO BE A PATTERN'

Evening Post, Issue 66, 15 September 1936, Page 10

'NOT TO BE A PATTERN'

THE RATES ASPECT

"The Mayor of Lower Hutt may rest assured that the Government is going to do nothing that will spoil his garden suburb," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) today, when commenting-on the discussion that took place last evening at the meeting of the' Lower Hutt Borough Council in reference to the. Government's housing scheme. "We are not going to inflict anything on Lower Hutt or on anybody else, but we are going to build houses," said Mr. Savage. "The houses we will build will be real homes, and' nobody will be able to point at them and say, 'They are Government houses.' We are not going to build houses according 'to one pattern. We realise that we are facing a big job, but we will do it. I venture to say that the houses we will build in Lower Hutt will be on a par with what are there now. The Government will also see to it that ; the sections on which the houses are' built will be large enough to enable the people living in them to have a decent garden." - When invited to comment regarding the payment of rates on State-owned houses, the Minister of Finance • (the Hon. W. Nash) said he had made the point: quite clear when moving the second reading of the State Advances Corporation Act in the House of Representatives on May 28 last. He. then stated:—"Our proposals provide for the rates to be paid to the local authority when the house. is let; so that in respect of properties of which the State is mortgagee in possession, or of which the State is agent fpr the mortgagor, that are let at ordinary rentals, full rates will be paid to the local authorities •concerned/ ■