Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1946. The Housing Shortage

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1946, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1946. The Housing Shortage

JT was asserted in a statement issued by the Dunedin Master Builders’ Association this .week that houses which could once be built in three months or less now take nine months or a year .to complete, and skilled men, who should bp employed at full pressure erecting much-needed homes, are compelled to waste time in unprofitable, unskilled work while awaiting the driblets of materials that slip through the virtual blockade of the Government’s import control policy. On the other hand, the people have in recent months been regaled with lavish promises of 10-year development plans and the like, involving the employment of thousands of men and the use of large quantities of building materials. The Minister of Works; Mr. Semple, has said that housing, is one of the works that will have to go ahead. It is one thing, however, to express a determination; it is entirely another to achieve results. And those people—they arc numbered in thousands—who are in desperate need of homes, and have been for a long times will not feel disposed to receive the Minister’s adumbrations kindly. Ministerial Optimism.

During the course of recent comments at Dargaville, the Prime Minister, Dlr. Fraser, said that if plans, which were now well advanced, were put into effect the Dominion would overcome its housing difficulties within two years. He did little, however, to elucidate those plans. The; Prime Minister also claimed that in three; years the supply of houses should be abreast of the country’s needs, but he added the very significant qualification that this objective would be achieved if the problem were tackled as‘were the needs of war. During the period of emergency, however, man-power controls were in force and the 40-hour five-day week was suspended. Is it to be assumed, fore, that the Government has in view the reimposition of war-time measures on a smaller scale as a means of increasing the production of building supplies and thp rate of housing construction? Although the Prime Minister may have had some such idea in the back of his mind, it seems hardly likely that he will give practical expression to it in the next few months.

The rosy promises, and optimistic staloments of Ministers of the Crown, on the. one hand, and the factual statements of master builders, on the other, are in direct contrast. The obvious conclusion is, of course, that the possibility of early alleviation of the housing shortage is very remote. The plain fact of the matter is that the present restricted supply of building materials and the inadecpiaey of the man-power available will not permit any increase in the rate of construction. The bottleneck reaches right back to the timber worker and the bushman. In Reverse Gear.

The Government is no doubt as desirous as anyone else to see as many houses as possible built as soon as possible. As soon as the war had ended, however, it set about instituting industrial concessions in such a hurried manner that it threw the whole of the economic machine into reverse gear, A little foresight and industrial adjustments would have resulted in a. gradual decrease, if any at all, in the tempo of activity. During the war the demands of secondary industries—of mushroom growth behind a protective wall increased the drain on the man-power supply to the detriment of essential industries, and this was aggravated by the effects of the almost universal introduction of the five-day week. The result is that the timber industry is short of 1000 men, and the manufacture of house fittings and appliances made in New Zealand cannot keep pace with the demand. In addition production is hindered by the coal and electricity shortages in the north, and failure to secure, because of the stifling effects of a rigid import control system, a full supply of what materials are known to be readily available overseas, has added to the chaos. The Government has set as its objective the building of 12,000 houses a year in the next five years. There is little indication, however, that much headway is being made. The situation is as bad in the State building schemes as it is in. private industry. All over the country houses arc standing in various stages of completion, in many cases waiting for the finishing touches that would make them habitable, while at the same time numerous families remain in desperate need.

The only solution to the problem is to use the Dominion’s man-power and resources in the building and associated industries to the limit, and also to offer encouragement to individuals to build and own their own homes. There are millions of pounds lying idle ih the savings and trading banks which could be usefully invested in the building of houses, and thus remove the potential threat of inflation which their accumulation represents. Stability and moral fibre will never be built up in a nation by the unlimited pursuit of a policy of State landlordism.