HOUSING PROBLEM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18413, 20 May 1920, Page 4

HOUSING PROBLEM.

GOVERNMENT ACTION. STOPPAGE OF NON-ESSENTIAL BUILDING. [Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, May 19. The Government has decided to put into operation the power it has under statute of stopping unnecessary building, in order that the available labour and capital for building may bo concentrated on the construction of houses, the object of the decision being to recover some of the present housing shortage all over the country. Mr Massey said to-day that Cabinet had deoided) to enforce certain war regulations, but they would be applied only to building works, not to any other works, and they would not bo applied t-o any building in course of construction. People wishing to e>nbark upon building enterprises other than the building of residential places must, in futuro, come to the Minister of Finance, and the Minister would act in accordance with the regulations, until the present housing difficulty comes to an end or that phase of it caused by shortage of labour and shortage of materials.

Mr Massey said that he was informed by the Labour Department that there were 1200 residences at present in course of erection in New Zealand.