NOT SATISFIED

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 6

NOT SATISFIED

HOUSING PROGRESS

SURVEY SUGGESTED

Suggestions for a more systematic attack on the housing problem were . put forward in the House of Representatives yesterday, by Mr. A. J. Murdoch (National, Marsden), when he was speaking in the Budget debate. He said he had made inquiries m Whangarei and had been told there that one house was being completed every six weeks. , , M , "That's going some," commented Mr. W J Broadfoot (National, Waitomo). Mr. R. M. Algie (National, Remuera): Socialist mass production. (Laughter.) .. ■ Mr. Murdoch said he thought the time had arrived'when those m charge of the timber cupplies, the state Forest Service, should be able to tell the Minister in Charge of Housing what amount of timber was available in each district for building. A survey should then be made of the number of builders available and also of those who would be prepared to undertake private building. -Having obtained that data, steps should be taken to ascertain the quantity of roofing materials and internal equipment available and where it was located. "Then," said Mr. Murdoch, "let us get into the job with a systematic plan instead of the haphazard plan we have got at present, giving a house or two here and there. Let us also get to the stage where we can have some of the houses in the smaller towns and country districts besides having them in the electorates of the Minister of Finance and the member for Wellington Suburbs." Mr. W. M. C. Denham (Government, Inver'cargill): The country districts are getting their share. Mr. Murdoch denied they were getting their share, and. suggested that if more houses were erected in the provincial areas it would assist in drawing people away from the crowded cities and arrest the drift to the towns. He also urged that sawmillers, carpenters, plumbers, and other building artisans should be demobilised from the service establishments withm New Zealand at once. Mr. Murdoch, added that he was satisfied that more could be done in buildjng houses. "We want to tackle .it systematically," hie said, "and then make it open for the builders to attack it and see if we can't do something better than we are doing at present."