HOUSING PROBLEM.

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 65, 21 August 1944, Page 3

HOUSING PROBLEM.

STATE AND PRIVATE BUILDING. Speaking in the House of Representatives on Thursday night, the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Works, said housing was in the mind of every public man in the country, but no section had got a monopoly of sympathy for those needing homes. Housing was a worldwide problem, he said, and New Zealand had done more to bridge the gap than any other country in the civilised world.

The Government did not seek to eliminate private enterprise, but was trying, like every government in the world, to solve the housing problem. They had to bridge the gap between the number of houses built by private enterprise and the number needed. The Government had made a serious effort to do this, and but for the war there would be no ho-using problem in New Zealand to-day.

in spite of immense difficulties, said the Minister, 25,000 houses had been built in New Zealand during the war. This meant, on the average of a family of four, that 100,000 people had been housed during the war. Half of these houses had been built by private enterprise, the other half by the State. Even with State houses, the timber and other materials and the actual building were all furnished by private enterprise, which the Government did not seek to replace. The only individual the Government tried to stpp was the unscrupulous rack-renter, the would-be slum builder; but the State had to take a hand in providing houses, since pri vate enterprise had dismally failed on this question in every country of the world.

CONSTRUCTION ACCELERATED. Mr Semple said housing construction was now being speeded up. He invited the co-operation of the Opposition and of everyone in solving the big problem of housing. He did not claim a monopoly of ideas on it. The Minister said that during the war building costs had risen by 100 per cent, in Scotland, 40 per cent, in Australia, but only 26 per cent, in New Zealand. Nevertheless, apartment houses and other dwellings had changed hands at increases in price of up to 75 per cent That justified the legislation the Government had enacted to limit rises in the prices of homes. In no circumstances would he agree to reduce the standards of State houses. To the end of July, contracts had been let for 20,300 houses in 157 towns, while 16,255 State houses had been completed to the same date, in spite of the inevitable tapering off of building during the war crisis. It was a miracle we had been able to do as n\ucli as we had.

At the present time 2900 houses were under construction. During the last three months an average of 100 house? monthly had been finished. There were now 221 contractors engaged on State housing. Of 40,000 sections purchased, 21,000 were still available, so land purchases were well ahead of buildii . Unfortunately, timber was nor rue only bottleneck in building. There were bottlenecks in the shortage of such tradesmen as bricklayers, tile-layers, and plumbers. The Minister of Rehabilitation was tackling the situation by training young men in these trades. Mr, Semple said the Housing Department was experimenting in prefabricated concrete construction. The first contract for 26 such houses had just been let.

The Minister also referred to the tremendous task of the Government in constructing hospitals, and military buildings for the American soldiers in the Pacific.