WORKMEN’S DWELLINGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12584, 20 August 1901, Page 4

WORKMEN’S DWELLINGS.

It is difficult to see hour the Government, which presumably wishes too make a success of the workmen’s hamlets, oan ignore the representations made to it concerning the miserably inadequate! allowance for building purposes provided' for penniless selectors. We have already oonimanted strongly on the absurdity of the position. The great majority eff the workers in a city like Christchurch have absolutely no opportunity of saving money, and it was really with! the idea of helping them to. make homes for themselves that these settlements were established. Land is provided at a very cheap rental, and if workers with a little money could be induced to take it up, the settlements would 1 , undoubtedly flourish. But workers who have saved can be left to obtain homes for themselves without State aid, and they show mo disposition to migrate • to the Government hamlets. The result is that many of those who take up sections are aUmioiSt penniless, and are dependent. upon the Government advance of £SO or less for their houses and improvements. Now £SO will not provide a very comfortable home, and the dwellings erected by the tenants are cheerless in the extreme. The whole scheme therefore hangs fire lamentably. The very sensible and practical letter forwarded to the. Minister of Lunds by Mr H. A. Atkinson, on behalf of the Socialist Church, suggests that the Government should either advance money up to £250 for building purposes, or, better still, erectthe dwellings itself and charge a suitable rent. The result of Mr Atkinson’s efforts to bring, the question before Parliament appears in the replies he has received from various member's of the House 1 of Representativesl, and it wild be seen that although the members speak vaguely of the movement, they are all in sympathy with it. We hope that the question will be ventilated on every possible occasion, and that the progressive members of Parliament will press the Government to undertaiko the reform. It is not sufficient for toe Lands Department merely to consider the suggestions. Its administration has broken down in regard to these workmen's homes, and unless something, is done promptly we shall have the Opposition referring to the condition of the settlements as a proof of the weakness andi insincerity of the Government. Something of the kind happened in 1885, and in 1887 the condition of the village settlements was the subject of a bitter discussion in the House Of Representatives. The scheme was never satisfactory, because in the country districts the settlers could not. succeed unless they obtained work with neighbouring farmers and had the material for house-building. Moreover, in bush districts a few. pounds went a long way towards fencing the sections and building w'hares. The position of the Workers’ homes close 1 to the cities is even more unsatisfactory, and for the sake of its credit the Government should devise means of helping Struggling workers to establish homes that are something more than shelters and shanties. The principle is perfectly sound, and, properly applied, it would go far towards saving New Zealand from the state of things that Inals made the housing problem so important a question ia the Mother Country.