STEADILY DETERIORATING

Evening Star, Issue 25716, 13 February 1946, Page 7

STEADILY DETERIORATING

DUNEDIN'S HOUSING SHORTAGE STUDENT ACCOMMODATION PROBLEM R.S.A. TO APPROACH GITY COUNCIL The desperate plight of students of the University of Otago requiring accommodation when the first term commences in March was emphasised by the Rev. H. W. Turner, registrar of lodgings for the University, who waited on the executive committee of the Dunedin Returned Services Association at its meeting last night to enlist its influence towards securing lodgings for the large percentage of returned servicemen students who will be attending the University. The committee professed its concern over the housing problem in relation to returned servicemen generally, and decided after a lengthy discussion to promote an energetic Press and _ radio campaign to endeavour to obtain accommodation for returned servicemen students attending the University.

The committee also indicated its alarm at the steady deterioration of the housing position in Dunedin by deciding to send a deputation to the City Council and to make representations through the Dominion 'Executive of the R.S.A. to the Acting Prime Minister (Hon. W. Nash). , .Returned servicemen intending to attend the University in March would he embracing the benefits of rehabilitation, said Mr Turner. In their role as students they realised that they were not the only returned servicemen desperately requiring homes. Some of thorn, the married men, would be content with a couple of rooms. The response made on their behalf had heen disappointing. Of less than 30 offers most of them covered only one room, accommodating one student. The appeal for married men who were taking up their studies after several years had fallen flat. The University Council was considering taking over army huts from Auckland, hut the restricted cargo space on coastal shipping was also a problem. APATHETIC RESPONSE. " Can the R.S.A. reinforce the efforts the University is making? '* asked Mr Turner. " There is a 'section of Dunedin people who could do more, but how are we going to get under their skins. The rehabilitation authorities are realising that the grant of £3 a week to returned servicemen students is useless if they cannot take advantage of it because they'have no place to live while attending the University." Mr Turner told the executivfi that one man was living at Tahuna Park, and his selection might not be a very comfortable one in wet weather. At the end of February Mr Turner said he expected hundreds of applications for accommodation. He could not yet advise students who were returned servicemen and who intended to get married to do so at present in the light of accommodation problems in Dunedin. There would be a big batch of persons entering the University_ who had left secondary schools, continued Mr Turner, but if there' were the means to do so preference in securing accommodation would be given to returned servicemen. CARGILL'S CASTLE OFFERED. Mr A. J. H. Jeavons asked Mr Turner if the University had any opportunity of taking over a communal establishment and running it. Mr Turner: Yes. I had the offer of Cargill's Castle to-day. The president (Mr H. P. Jefcoate): One difficulty as I see it as the R.S.A.representative on the Rehabilitation Committee is that returned servicemen who have been back for two years are still living in one room and have no chance of 'becoming settled, in a house within the next year._ Our duty first is to the men of Dunedin. Befoi-e last Christmas there were 21 families separated because of the housing shortage, which is becoming worse with the return since then from overseas of many more servicemen. Mr M. S. Myers: The University is one of Dunedin's best industries and one of the most neglected. Mr W. R. Brown asked Mr .Turner whether he thought that as there was student accommodation available lint that as the appeal by the university authorities had been apathetic and had failed to arouse sympathy in many oases, the R.S.A. might offer its services to tap that sympathy. Mr Turner: The word "student 1 ' often does not open a door: the other word may. Since 1941 £IOO,OOO has been spent on extending university accommodation. Mr Turner added that it. was not generally known that students who misbehaved themselves in lodgings could be disciplined by being expelled, " sent down." or fined. Mr Myeis said that all that the Ntudonts needed was a roof over their heads. The President: 'But returned servicemen who are not students cannot find a room, n flat, or a house. Mr Myers STRONG ACTION NEEDED. Alter Mr Turner had retired Mr C. R. McLean suggested that the Do-

minion Executive Committee of the R.S.A. should urge the Government to increase the perceutage of State houses granted in priority to returned servicemen from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent. The problem confronting students deserved the sympathy of the R.S.A. The Acting Prime Minister iMr Nash) should be urged to make available more houses in the Dunedin district.

Two motions were the outcome of the deputation and .the discussion that followed. They were as follows: — " That the Dominion Executive Committee of the N.ZJR.S.A. be urged to make further strong representations to the Government with a view to an immediate substantial increase in the number of State houses allotted to returned servicemen; further. _ that the urgency of the housing situation in the Dunedin district and the increasing need for houses for returned scrvicemon be represented to the Acting Prime Minister (Mr Nash) and to all Otago members of Parliament. " That in the view of the representations made as to the _ desperate need of housing accommodation for returned servicemen and their wives and families, the president (Mr Jefcoatel make Press and broadcast appeals to the public of Dunedin to open their homes in cases where they have accommodation to provide for this need. This appeal should be oh general lines to embrace all returned servicemen, pointing out the special problem in Dunedin due to its heing a university town and having to provide for returned servicemen and their wives in order that they can attend and make full use of their rehabilitation bursaries."