DIXON ST. FLATS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1943, Page 6

DIXON ST. FLATS

BABIES ARE WANTED

"This is probably as low as any political party will care to descend," said Mr. R. Semple, Labour candidate for Wellington East, at Worser Bay last night. "This is a lying advertisement about the Dixon Street flats appearing over the abused • word' 'National.' It is the limit in lowness." The advertisement to which Mr. Semple referred was published in the "Sports Post" of Saturday last. Under a photograph of the Dixon Street flats were the words "No Babies Allowed" in heavy type, and then followed, '"When babies come the couples in these flats will have to get out,' said the Hon. R. Semple when opening this 116-flat building three weeks ago." . "What I said was that these flats were originally intended to provide accommodation mainly for working girls and for elderly couples who had reared their families and for both of whom, there is a great shortage of accommodation in Wellington," said Mr.. Semple. "There is an" appalling shortage of all housing here, and these flats were intended to meet that shortage in one part, while the State houses were to look-after the rest as fast as we could build them. PREFERENCE FOR SOLDIERS AND wives. :" : "Then the Japs burst through Singa-I pore and the men on housing went to I defence work, but housing will start ] again all right. .Men began to come back and married their sweethearts.. They had to have somewhere to go., We decided that these new couples should have at least 50 per cent, preference at the Dixon Street flats. I did say that these flats were not suit- \ able for families. The top flats are' 100 feet in the air. They would have | been a nightmare for a mother whose baby had started to crawl. There is no j playing room' anywhere for children, but it is the very lowest form of misrepresentation to say that I said/ 'couples would have to get out when babies came.' "I said in the presence of the Mayor and to the Mayor, 'We will call these flats honeymoon flats. We want additional population, and the best immi-, grants are New Zealand-born.' When we can get on with the building pro-1 gramme* again we will build- houses and homes, and these men and their wives J and their babies will have preference, in the .new homes we will build for them. • , MR. HISLOP CRITICISED. "This lieing advertisement goes on to tell you to vote National for a bolder housing policy. If Mr. Hislop had during his twelve years of office as Mayor of Wellington done anything to relieve Wellington's disgraceful housing situation he would have a right as a Nationalist to talk about a bolder housing policy," said Mr. Semple. "This is the same Mr. Hislop who on April 7, 1938, talked about the necessity of'flats. This is what he said: 'The immediate problem was to build flats near the centre of the city.' Then I a month later he said more about it: 'One particular need at present is that of accommodation for the many, young women .who- are working in -Wellington but whose homes are elsewhere. They have told me, and, indeed, it is obvious, that they have the utmost difficulty in finding suitable accommodation at rentals which they can afford. Provision will be made under the scheme I have suggested and >in other groups of flats for a number of small flats or apartments consisting of a bed-living-room with suitable" kitchenette and bathroom facilities. This,: I" believe, will go some way towards meeting a particular and pressing difficulty.' "But the difference between Mr. Hislop's talk and the Labour Government's action is that-the Labour Government did something: Mr. Hislop's record of achievement in housing "is- a positive and absolute blank." ;