WORKERS’ HOMES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14167, 15 September 1906, Page 5

WORKERS’ HOMES.

A CURIOUS POSITION. [Fkom Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, September 14. A somewhat ‘curious position has arisen in connection with the workers’ homes erected by the Government at Petone. Although the Government has widely advertised the homes erected at Petone, and although rents in Wellington are abnormally high, the number of applicants up till last evening was only two for the twenty-five houses that have been erected or are in course of erection. “ Homes for workers are an experiment on the part of the late Government to combat the high rents that prevail in and around Wellington. Petone was selected as the spot,” says the “ Times,” “ for the first settlement, as it is essentially a ‘ working man’s suburb.’ The picture of underpaid workers struggling to pay rent in the face of .high-priced food stuffs was foi'oed upon the notice of the Government. Land was purchased at the ©astern end of the borough, neat five-roomed cottages have been erected on 40ft by 100 ft sections, applicants have been invited to occupy them at a rental that in any case does not exceed 10s 6d per week, and precisely two persons apply. It can only bo imagined that the Petone working man is not alive to the good .uing that is being offered him, or that, fearing the effect of the ‘ homes’ landlords have lowered rents of some of the smaller houses to retain tenants. The maximum rent is 10s 6d per week, but there hr© some of the ‘ homes ’ to be secured at 9s 9d per week, and, having made a personal-inspection of the houses, wo can testify that if within a two-mile radius of Wellington Post Office they would fetch £1 and perhaps £1 5s per week. An applicant for a ‘ home ’ must not be in the receipt of more than £156 -per annum (£3 per week),, the idea being to give the lowest paid workmen an opportunity of securing a really comfortable home at a modest rental. If an insufficient number of that class of workmen fail to apply to-day, the Board will bo forced into considering the question of letting the . houses to persons receiving a higher wage, and as the houses are certain to be ‘ snapped up,’ the poorly paid worker will be left lamenting that ho had missed his chance.”

The “Times” does not attempt to explain the reasons for the extraordinary position, but inquiries I have made to-day lead me to believe that the difficulty lies in the poverty of the persona eligible to rent these homes. The tenant has to pay a' fee and one month’s rent in advance, making a sum of about £3 10s, and this Is more than the workers concerned can command in one sum. Moreover, to the very poor, the daily railway trip into the city is prohibitive, unless work can be secured in Petone. There will not be’ the least difficulty in letting the cottages to a better class of tenant, hut it seems that the regulations must he relaxed in some direction to meet the people for whose relief the cottages were erected.