HOUSING

Grey River Argus, 11 September 1944, Page 4

HOUSING

MR O’BRIEN’S COMMENT WELLINGTON, Sept. 9. In his speech on the Budget, Hon. J. O’Brien pointed out that in the last five years of the Nationalist Government’s reign, the total number of dwellings erected was 12,UUU, or an average of 2400 per annum. In the first five years of the Labour Government, the number of houses built was nearly 40,000, or 6762 per annum. In one year, the houses built by the State Advances Department under the Nationalists numbered only 11. In the five year’s the Nationalist Government was in power, people who should have been building houses were on the dole, including sawmillers, carpenters and plumbers. Had the Nationalists built the same number of houses in their five years as the Labour Government had in its five years, New Zealand would have had another 20,000 houses in which to house its people —and yet the Nationalists contender they are not responsible for the housing shortage.