LONG DEBATE ENDED

Evening Star, Issue 26155, 17 July 1947, Page 8

LONG DEBATE ENDED

HOUSING SHORTAGE MAIN TOPIC AT QUESTION TIME (Special.) WELLINGTON, July 17. Housing and the supply of building materials were topics discussed by several speakers during question time in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon and later by Mr W. Sullivan (Nat., Bay of Plenty), when the Address-in-Reply Debate was concluded last night. The. only members of the House who did not contribute to the Address-in-Reply Debate were the Minister of Marine, Mr J. O’Brien, and Mr A. S. Richards (Govt., Mount Albert), who were away ill, and Mr M. Ratana (Govt., Western Maori). The strong party attitude, which has led to frequent interruptions during the debate, persisted to the end, Mr Speaker having to call firmly to order Opposition members who .were interjecting while Mr J. Mathison (Govt., Avon), the mover, was making his final speech. GOVERNMENT BLAMED FOR SLOW HANDLING OF URGENT REQUIREMENTS It appears to. me that the bottleneck is the Government” coinmeiitei} Mr C. M. Bowden (Nat., Karori), when he discussed the answer of the Minister of;Works, Mr R. Semple, ,to a question about what action had followed the conference of manufacturers of * building materials to facilitate supplies from overseas and in the Dominion. The Minister’s reply was that action had been taken to investigate all bottle-necks in production. Mr Bowden started that the conference was called last March and made some recommendations, but those who attended it had received no report from the Minister. One of the suggestions made by the manufacturers was that operations on the waterfront -should be speeded up, as slow handling of coastal ships had caused a great accumulation of cargo. He believed 20,000 tons' of cargo in 1 vtteltoii was awaiting transport to the North 'lsland, and there was a similar accumulation in North Island ports of. cargo, for the south. Lorries spent hours on the , Wellington wharves waiting their, turn to deliver cargo to coastal ships, but sometimes r e vehicles had to go away until ;he next day. One of the most, extraordinary experiences was -.that'of a firm wishing to send goods to Auckland which ~ the Railway Department could not take. The transport authority refused permission to send the goods by road, so the firm ' loaded its lorry on a railway truck, got it transported to Auckland By railf and then returned a lorry similarly with a load from Auckland to Wellington. "A FRIENDLY WAY.”

'The Minister qf Works said the conference of-building material mannfacterers was called by him to discuss the difficulties in a friendly way and gather information on the subject. Since then a committee appointed by Cabinet had been sitting frequently to deal with bottle-necks, and a recent deputation of returned servicemen about the housing problem went away well content when they heard what was being done. Mr M. Moohan under-secretary to the Prime liuister, was 'working all the time trying to get the shipping difficulty untangled. The committee was making good progress with its Work. It was true, said Mr, Semple, that the country, through circumstances over which it had no control, did run short of building materials. Mr' E. B. Corbett (Nat., Egmont): Tell us about cement. PLENTY OF CEMENT. ' On several occasions, said Mr Semple, the cement works at Golden Bay had been jammed with cement, but ships could- not be got down there. Everything possible, he said, had been done to try to get to die bottom of the bottle-neck in building supplies. . It was not a bit of use the Minister saying everything had been done, said (Mr M. H. Oram (Nat., Manawatu). So far as cement supplies were concerned, it was perfectly clear it was not a question of ships not being available, blit of the turn-around of shipping. The building industry was not getting cement because of the futility of the Government and because the Government could not handle the situation. “ Ships that made 14 trips a year now make only eight or nine, and that is the reason, and that only, why that cement is not going into production,” said Mr Oram. The Opposition was less concerned about production and co-ordination _ of building supplies than it was with carrying on a hymn of hate against the Government and their special bogeymen, the. waterside workers, said Mr Moohan. The question of building supplies, he said, was determined largely by the amount of material -which could be imported. Only a certain size of ship could enter Tarakohe. Some time ago, however, Tarakohe had been closed down because of a shortage of coal. A small quantity only of cement and Steel was used in building houses, he continued. Construction should not be held up because of a shortage of cement, whicli was now coming in at a greater rate than ever. SHIPPING DELAYS. Mr W. A. Sheat (Nat., Patea) said that the crux of the question appeared to be a quicker turn-around of ships. It was useless to say that ships were not available if the best use were not being made of those ships. Mr J. T. Watts (Nat., St. Albans) said that all that had been obtained from the Minister of Works was a statement that the Government was doing its best. Housing construction last year had been an all-time record* said Mr P. G. Connolly (Govt., Dunedin Central), who spoke of the greater demand that existed at present for housing accommodation. ENORMOUS COST INCREASE. The increase in the price of building was disturbing and enormous, said Mr Sullivan. He believed the Government had many Army buildings which still could be‘used for temporary housing, and there were still people living in

tents, rooms, and shacks. When the Government quoted figures showing the number of houses it had built in recent years it should be remembered that this had only been achieved because other building lmd been largely prevented. “We have not got far towards a solution of the problem when it is considered in that light,” he said. Not one member on the Government side of the House could say honestly that import restrictions had not hindered building. The Government, too, should arrest its policy of inflation, the cost situation in the country having reached such a state that the ordinary man would soon not be able to build. When it was realised that'in many parts of the country it now cost something over £2 a square foot to build a house the inadequacy of a maximum rehabilitation loan of £1,500 was evident. “ I sincerely hope the Minister of Rehabilitation will take up this question' with the Cabinet,” he continued. The Government’s policy of continually pouring currency into the country had caused the whole.cost structure to rise. “ Some day—and there can be no other answer to it,” he concluded, “ prices must come down with a crash. The Government does not seem to care one iota where the cost structure finishes.”