GOVERNMENT HOUSES
EFFECT ON RENTS
MR. NASH'S CONTENTION
With all the difficulties facing people who could not get houses, no Government on record had built more or better houses than the present Government, said the Hon. W. Nash (Minister of Finance), at Petone last evening.
For instance, said Mr. Nash, up to 500 houses in the Hutt Valley werecompleted or nearing completion, and in other parts of Wellington houses were being built. Mrs. Knox Gilmer,. a candidate for one of the Wellington seats, had said that the Government did not build the new houses for the poor working man and-his family. This was not true. Rents for Government houses ranged from 20s 6d to 34s 6d and but for the fact that these rents were in operation the rents of houses in Wellington would be 30 to 40 per cent, higher. There were no cheaper rents than those of Government houses.
The. demand for houses was so great that on a Sunday morning he had fiftythree people at his home in this connection, said Mr. Nash, and of this number forty were living in conditions that were iriost unfavourable. The reason for the acute shortage of houses was that during the depression carpenters entered other avenues of employment because no work was available for them and for three or four years apprenticeship was almost stopped. He hoped that carpenters would return to their old .employment. It was not possible to overcome these difficulties, and the result was not half enough houses were available. He could say with certainty that no better houses were built anywhere.
One of the circumstances of the shortage of houses was that when i people had more money to pay the \p ent the landlords wanted some of it in increased rents. The result of this was that the Government passed the Fair. Rents Act. Not all houses were covered by the Fair Rents Act, however, and, most of the houses in Wellington for which the landlord was asking £2 or £2 10s or more a week did mot come within the provisions of the Act.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 56, 3 September 1938, Page 11
Word Count
350GOVERNMENT HOUSES Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 56, 3 September 1938, Page 11
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