OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1791, 15 December 1936, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

HOUSING PLANS In one respect the Government’s plans are well behind schedule. When he introduced his first Budget early in August the Minister of Finance said that plans were being prepared for the construction of 5000 houses at a cost of approximately £3,000,000. These plans must have been fairly well advanced for Mr. Nash felt sufficiently confident of the position to add that “ it is hoped to erect some 900 houses before the end of the financial year.” More than four months have passed, and now the Prime Minister states that it is expected that 375 houses in the Wellington district will - be. commenced in the New And it is hoped to have tenders called for the houses to be erected in Auckland at an early date. As it is' expected that it will take 28 weeks to erect the houses it is evident that instead of 900 being finished in 1936-37 there may be none. Some built privately, but with State financial assistance, will no doubt be finished by the end of March, but the members of the Ministry who have discussed the subject publicly clid not refer to those buildings. They clearly meant the houses that the State itself is to have built, and if any are ready for occupation by the end of the financial year there will certainly not be 900 available, as Mr. Nash had anticipated.

The announcement that the State joinery works, that were so promptly authorised by Cabinet, are to be leased by private firms will cause some surprise. This, is was understood, was to be a State enterprise, and Mr. Lee was expected to use it to secure the reduction of costs that he has predicted. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary has expressed his confidence that mass production methods will bring down building costs substantially, and the construction of these large works could only have been justified if they had been used to the end. At the time they were authorised it was said that existing works in the Dominion could easily cope with the demand, but the Government was determined to proceed with the work. Now, apparently, the State is to invest money in providing the works, ahd probably equipping them, and then lease them to private firms. It will be interesting to hear what the' advocates of State enterprise, of more Socialism, have to say about this development, but the competing firms will certainly want to know what return the rent will be on the money invested. If it should be below the market level then obviously the lessees would be favourably situated to undermine private enterprise. Mr. Savage did not say when the works would be leased, but it is already clear that the completion of 900 houses before the end of the current financial year cannot possibly be realised.—Times.

The wire advising of the official ceremony in regard to the proclamation of King George VI. was only received in Matamata on Sunday evening.

COST OF WHEAT PRODUCTION The Press states: The Government’s announcement of an inquiry into the costs of wheat production carries the brief explanation that “reliable data” are sought “to enable the Government to decide upon fixed prices for the coming and future harvests.” The explanation requires only this comment, that the Government is acting a little soon. It has set going a complex process in which costs will be raised, directly and indirectly, and it is promoting an inquiry into the cost basis of one industry, before the process has nad much time to develop and while some of the evidence, at any rate, must be little if at all affected by it. This is not a point that the special committee is likely to overlook; but it must tend to make estimates and conclusions an insecure basis for price-fixing beyond the coming harvest. The danger is of their becoming rapidly more and more unreliable, when the Government, without the help of a special committee, will have to readjust them to the consequences of its own acts. It is merely incidental that the Government is bound to measure those consequences in the way least prejudicial to itself, so that it will always be inclined to under-rate advances in industrial costs and difficulties in clearing expenses and making profits. The wheatgrower may therefore be awkwardly caught, his coat-tails being drawn into the machine and the engineer insisting that he 'is a lot freer than he fancies. In the meantime, however, it may be agreed that •it is some years since any inquiry of the kind was made and that many of the facts which were then basic have been altered. Mechanical farming has progressed rapidly, reducing labour costs but raising capital costs. Wages and taxation are higher; money is cheaper, and some processes, like threshing and transport, are cheaper. But though it will be useful to have these changes explored, as we have said, it will be fallacious to regard the committee’s findings as anything provisional. As such, no doubt, they will be submitted.

[Does not the same apply to the dairying products ?—Editor, Record.]