THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service" WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1949 LOWERED LIVING STANDARDS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4122, 6 April 1949, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service" WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1949 LOWERED LIVING STANDARDS

Although there is no recognised standard on which the accommodation shortage can be compared year by year it is evident that the position in the main centres has improved little, if at all, in the past two or three years. The shortage has existed for so long that, as a member of the Auckland City Council remarked some time ago, many people have become accustomed to unsatisfactory conditions and have adjusted themselves to a new but lower standard of living. Young people who have come to maturity under war and post-war conditions may find it hard to realise that there was a time when it was the accepted thing in this country for each household to be a separate home unit, with a self-contained house and a private garden. To possess a separate home unit nowadays is too often regarded as a privilege, where once it was the recognised right of every newlymarried couple. While these circumstances continue there is a constant danger that the health and welfare of the people will suffer through the general lowering of living conditions. This is a matter to which attention has again been* drawn by a recent published statement in which the Wellington City Council discussed the problem of keeping the city’s accommodation at a desirable level. From this statement it is clear that the council has to decide between two equally regrettable lines of action —to enforce the regulations governing living standards in boarding-houses, apartment-houses and private homes, or to connive at less important breaches of the regulations. The first incurs the risk of hardship to occupiers of premises which would be closed down if the regulations were strictly enforced. The second incurs the risk of fostering lower standards to the detriment of the health and welfare of the community as well as the occupiers It is certainly not an easy problem to solve, and while the housing shortage remains acute the second alternative will evidently continue to be the favoured course of action. Unfortunately the prospects of meeting the needs of home-seekers in the near future are not bright. At the end of February there were over 47,000 unsatisfied applications for State houses in New Zealand. In January and February alone 1865 new tenancy applications were lodged, compared with only 322 State houses let or re-let in the same period. This is perhaps a fair indication of the severity of the • shortage throughout the Dominion. In consequence the authorities are forced to review the basis of living standards, and the only way to accommodate increasing population in non-expanding boarding or rooming facilities would seem to be ap. ever-lowering of the minimum authorised standard.