FULL USE OF HOUSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 212, 7 August 1945, Page 4

FULL USE OF HOUSES

HINT BY MINISTER. REGULATIONS SOON. Several suggestions for alleviation of the housing shortage in Palmerston North were advanced by speakers at the official opening of the carpentry trade training centre in Maire Street, yesterday. In reply to one, the Minister of Rehabilitation indicated that Cabinet had the subject in view and he said that regulations would be brought down soon in regard to it —the full employment of houses not fully utilised by the occupants. In supporting the welcome given by the Alayor (Air Mansford) to the Minister, Air J. Hodgens, M.P., said it might be asked by people of Palmerston North why it was that sixroomed and even eigbLroomed houses 1 were occupied by only two persons, ! who did not require the wbple of the house, when people were living under conditions we would not like ourselves. This question was being asked by many of the people of Palmerston North, Mr Hodgens stated, and he asked the Alinister to remember the point for mention before Cabinet. The Minister, in the course of his address, spoke of many factors which had led. to housing shortages throughout New Zealand. He said he met hundreds of returned servicemen who were seeking houses —and these were the “tough” ones who had got past the secretaries and who could not bo put off with the usual replies. It was of no use talking to them about the Government’s plans. These men wanted to get into a house —and they wanted a house of their own. The suggestion by Mr Hodgens was an excellent one, and it was a subject which had given the Government considerable food for thought. The Minister added that regulations dealing with this problem would be brought down very shortly. However, ex-ser-vicemen did not want to share homes —they wanted homes of their own. SHORTAGE OF AIATERIALS. The Alinister outlined measures which the Government had in view to assist to solve the problem of housing. One of these was the training of ex-servieemen to a standard where they could do all the general carpentry work in the building' of houses, and he expressed his firm conviction that timber would be the main building medium for many years to come. The carpentry training centre, as it was now established 'in Palmerston North, would be extended later. Large numbers of ex-servicemen were seeking homes of their own and the only way to meet that demand wa’s by the provision of adequate manpower and in the making up of shortages in materials. The primary shortage was that or timber,.. Mr Skinner went on. Normally New Zealand used less timber than was being produced now (340,000,000 feet annually), but war needs had expanded the demands on the mills. The need for boxing for the packaging of food-stuffs was an instance. Prior to the war the Dominion used 40,000,000 feet for this purpose, but now the figure was up to 100,000,000 feet, and this was one of the extraordinary drains on the country’s resources of timber which could not be foreseen before the war. The timber mills had a capacity for the production of 500,000,000 feet annually, but the lack of .manpower prevented full use of the machinery available. The same thing applied to cement. The kilns could not produce to their full capacity unless the coal was available. An extension of the cement industry had recently been examined by an exjpert who had visited New Zealand and it was to be hoped that it would not be long before the required machinery arrived. Private enterprise and the Government had undertaken a great amount of research into the possibilities or substitutes for timber and a good deal of work had been done in prefabrication, the Alinister continued. Here again, however, the continuity of the supply of materials was the secret of full production. Pre-cast concrete was one of the things the Government and private enterprise had examined. NEED FOR ARTISANS.

Surveys had been made of the total-s employed in the various trades, the numbers away at the war, and the numbers required as annual replacements, the Minister stated. There were 291 bricklayers in the Dominion arid 17 apprentices, and all of the latter were away at the war. A change had to be made in the apprenticeship style of training or bricklaying would have to go to the wall. On the figure of 12,000 houses to be built every year (and 8000 had been the previous record), there were required 1759 bricklayers with an additional 150 a year to provide for replacements. Similarly, 1140 joiners were required, with 166 annual replacements; 254 plumbers, with 151 replacements each year; 2850 plasterers with an additional 328 every year. In all, 8000 carpenters were required. So the Government had not gone blindly into the establishment of tfie trade training centres, which were aimed at assisting the ax-serviceman and also meeting one of the biggest problems in the country today. One way in which the demand for houses could bo lessened materially, the Minister continued, had been suggested to him recently. The proposal was that everyone’s income should be reduced by £2 a week. The speaker said he had no doubt that this would achieve the end, but no one wished to see such a thing done. The people of the country were demanding better things now and they were able to pay higher rents for houses. This was a good thing, a little. overdone at present, but he sincerely hoped that it would be a long time before the demand for houses was fully satisfied, for this demand was an indication of the prosperity of the people.