M.’s.P. IN STATE HOUSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 July 1941, Page 7

M.’s.P. IN STATE HOUSES

QUESTION TO MINISTER. ( Information as to how many mem- . bers of Parliament were occupying , State-built houses was sought in a question asked at a meeting addressed by the acting-Prime Minister, Mr. . Nash, at Takapuna. Both the Mimster and. Mr. A. G. Osborne, M.P. for Onehunga, who was on the platform, , replied, but neither gave the informa- ( tion sought. ~ ■ “I haven’t the slightest idea, said , Mr. Nash, when the question was ask- . ed. “I have only been to one that occupied by Mrs. W. J. Lyon. I got a loan from the State Advances to ( build my own house. You don t db- | ject, I hope.” , , The Questioner: Well, ask Osborne or Hultquist. , , Mr. Nash: The houses are built toi everybody. >, . ■ The Voice: You didn t say that m 19 After further exchanges, Mr. Nash said the Government was building ( houses for those who needed them. He did not want to see blocks ot houses for working-class people only, but lor all types. This did not mean that tne man with £lOOO a year should get more consideration than the man earning £250. , “A member of Parliament about £450 a year, less tax, but it he gets preference there is something wrong about it,” he added. Mr. Osborne, who volunteered to answer the question, said it was true he had a State house. He explained that when he was elected lor Onehunga he felt ,ho slibllld live m the electorate, and the only residence. he could get was one which in the opinion of many people was not befnting the position of a member. He had already applied for a State house, and two years after lodging the .application he was allocated, at a fairly hl&l 1 rental, one of the larger houses which had been vacant for sonic time, t here were at that time six people in his iam!lyEarlier in his address, Mr. Nash hiid mentioned that the Government had built 11,424 houses. MR. STATEMENT M/ELLINGTON, July 14. Four members ol' Parliament are occupying State houses. This answei to a question which the Acting-Prime Minister (Mr. Nash) was asked m Auckland recently was given to-day by the Minister for Housing (Mi. Armstrong). Mr. Nash said in Auckland that he was unable to answer the question. . "In my opinion no explanation i* necessary, certainly no apology, said Mr. Armstrong. “We have no instructions that even miembers of Parliament are undesirable tenants. No member with only his salary to live on has a labourer’s wage to take home after he has met the expenses that his position involves. He would nave to be very careful to' be as well o.x as a £5 a week man. Members occupying State houses were in a dearer type that w-as sometimes difficult to let at all, said Mr. Armstrong. He had reports on all tne State houses let in tne f°u r mam centres. Those reports showed the occupations and incomes of the successful applicants. Only in rare cases di’L a man with more than £/ a week get a house. Fully 95 per cent, ol the houses went to people with incomes ranging from 30/- to £7 a week. The Minister produced copies ol reports, and emphasised that in most cases the incomes of the people concerned Were between £4/10/- and £5/10/-. “If a person with more than a week gets a State-house, it is almost ' invariably one of the dearer houses at ' a rental of £2/2/6,” he said. “We built a few of these houses in each ol the ; four main centres. In some cases we had difficulty in letting them. Mon ' on £5 and £6 a week could often not ' pay the rent. We therefore had to look for someone who, in ordinary circumstances, would not have received a State house. Houses of this more expensive type are no longer being built.”