HOUSING POLICY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 192, 15 July 1939, Page 10

HOUSING POLICY

QUESTION OF PRICE. COMMENT IN HOUSE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 14. In the House of Representatives, this morning, Air A. E. Jull reminded members that the House was a broadcasting station where some listeners had a chance of talking back. Air J. A. Lee, he said, had been making an appeal to all members of the House to assist recruiting; that was a laudable thing to do. “But,” he added, “I am on thin ice. here, for I know nothing about defence. In the last war I was in what was called the National Reserve. I got as far as forming fours. Now they are forming throes, and I am gone.” (Laughter.) Referring to (he Governments housing policy, Air Jull said the houses being built were good, but m requiring all heart timber the specifications were a little extravagant. They would lead to the wastage of millions of feet of timber every year. Air T. H. AlcCombs: Would you sav the houses are too good? Air Jull: I would say that the houses are not too good for the working man. They arc too dear, that s all. Tts a bit like a working man s wife looking at a. forty guinea fur coat in a shop window; she knows it’s not too good for her, but that it’s too dear (Laughter.) All* Jull added that he would venture on tlie prophecy that the Government had £2,800,000 worth of gold bought at the old rate, and he visualised the Prime Minister having it assessed at present-day values to enable the Reserve Bank to.lend him another ten million pounds —another round of the hurdy-gurdy. He said that what the Government wanted was confidence. SOTL PROBLEM. AH* .T. B. Cotterill said he had been very interested in the report of the committee sot up to consider soil erosion throughout New Zealand, and lie expressed the hope that the Government would adopt the committee’s recommendations. There had been very serious erosion in the hack country of Wanganui, and lie was of opinion that the problem was one of the most important which faced the Government. Mr Cotterill also paid a tribute to the- effort which had been made throughout the season to tench people to swim. One of the greatest difficulties which had been experienced in the learn-to-swim campaign was the lack of proper training facilities in the country centres, and he thought the Government should be prepared to assist the people in the country centres to secure such facilities. The House adjourned at 1 p.m.