GOVERNMENT HOUSING SCHEME.

Evening Star, Issue 22576, 18 February 1937, Page 16

GOVERNMENT HOUSING SCHEME.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I am very surprised at the action of the Government in giving large contracts for the building of houses to big companies, like the Fletcher Construction Company, after its avowed statement that the Labour Government stood for a more equal distribution of wealth. There are, I believe, over 300 builders in Wellington. The great, majority are small builders who during the slump period had a very bad time. Would it not have been better policy to have allotted two houses to each local builder who applied? There would be the same amount of labour required, if not more, than under the monopolistic construction companies. There aye approximately 200 local builders in Dunedin who would like to share. in any Government houses to bo built in this city, and I venture to say that they would- jump at 22s 6d per square foot area, let alone 23s 7d and 23s 9d, as'stated by Mr L. V. Phillips, of the Hutt Valley Master Builders’ Association. Mr Sample said at Invercargill that the Government, could not afford

to make blunders, because it could not afford to lose any of the confidence of the country. I think, with many others in tho building line, that it has made a bad blunder with the Lower Hutt housing scheme. There are approximately 1,200 small builders in the four chief centres alone.—l am, etc., More Equal Distribution. February 16.