Rent Restriction

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7299, 28 October 1933, Page 6

Rent Restriction

Renewal of the Rent Restriction Act seems to have become a matter of routine again, as it used to be. Last year the measure was extended to the end of July, and then, when the session ran on into the beginning of 1933 and it became probable Parliament would not meet before the date of expiry so fixed, there was a further extension to the end of this month. Yet as long ago as 1927 the then Government announced an intention to lift the restrictions gradually, without hardship to anyone. Amendments were made which would have caused it to cease its operation on January 1, 1928. This was the position when the 1928 session ended, and it appeared certain that nothing would prevent it from doing so. Then a special session was held in December, 1928, and pressure exerted when the party situation was delicately balanced secured an extension to August 1, 1929. Since then year to year renewals of life have followed. The Act applies only to a limited number of houses, chiefly to those which were let for the first time before November 9,1920, at a rent not exceeding £lO4 a year. This condition is a reminder that the Rent Restriction Act is a direct legacy from emergency -war-time legislation, passed when conditions were vastly different from those obtaining to-day. The only development since is its extension to cover dwellings in the Hawke’s Bay earthquake area which were tenanted before the disaster of February, 1931, occurred. Light is thrown on the situation by the debate when renewal was effected last year. A number of members were emphatic in declaring that the legislation should be renewed. Then, almost without exception, they complained that its scope had been so restricted as to make it of very little use. Further development of the subject showed that an amendment of the Distress and Replevin Act was their real objective. It can be concluded that this continually revived section of emergency war legislation has few friends, and that the decision once taken, subsequently abandoned, to repeal it was justified. Yet it is extended as a piece of pure routine. It shbws how long the life of temporary legislation can sometimes be.

The Gazette this week notifies detailed local rates, scales of charge, and regulations for the carriage of goods on the New Zealand Railways, to be operative from October SSt.-w'

The Kailway Department advertises in this issue particulars of train ar* rangements in connection with the Manawatu A. and P. Show, to be held at Palmerston North on November 1, 3

A declaration to tho effect that prickly pear and fennell are noxious weeds within the Manawatu County has been Gazetted.

For an offence described by the Magistrate as a blackguardly and brutal assault upon his mother, Egbert Sainsbury Shore, aged 36, was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment at Dunedin yesterday. Tho polico described accused as a loafer, who went home under tfjo influence of liquor, pushed his mother about and broke her spectacles. 110 also brandished a carving knife and threatened to cut her throat. Alleged to have found a Post Office koy that was left in a letter-box, and thereafter to havo stolen letters containing money, a youth of 17 appeared in. the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch yesterday charged with theft. Tho Chief Detective said tho amount involved would probably be £IOO and the number of letters stolen one thousand. The boy, whose name was suppressed meantime, was charged with theft on September 28 of 13 belonging to Glassons, Ltd., and was remanded to November 2. A profound difference between European countries and New Zealand was in the attitude taken up by the professors towards politics, said Dr. W. M. Smith, when addressing the Manawatu Women’s Club yesterday. Whereas in the Dominion political activity on tho part of the professors was rigorously proscribed, in Europe those in charge of the universities often took an active part in affairs of State, greatly to the benefit of the nation as a whole. Dr. Smith suggested that New Zealand had a lesson to learn in this respect. The financial year of the Bluff Harbour Board ended on September 30 and the returns disclose that the amount collected for wharfage dues constitutes a record for the board, exceeding tho previous highest total by more than £7OO. The volume of goods traffis showed a big increase. Tho net revenue resulting from ordinary trading services for tho yoar 1932-33 was £45,488, compared with £38,889 for 1931-32. Of this the sum of £3OOO accruing from the salo of the tug Theresa Ward is excluded from the receipts. The latter exceeds expenditure by £1534. At Ashburton yesterday W. J. O'Connor was fined £4O and costs on a charge of selling liquor without a license. Defendant was agent for an hotel in Christchurch and sold a man two bottles of beer for neither of which he had an order, defendant saying that lie had one, but omitted to enter it. James O'Reilly, the licensee of the South Rakaia Hotel, was fined two amounts of £4 each for selling liquor after hours. Joseph O'Reilly a barman, for supplying liquor on one occasion when the licensee was absent, was fined £4 and the men found on the premises were fined £2 each.

Has Palmerston North failed fo recognise greatness in its midst" It would seem almost so, for its oftmaligned municipal buses, the centre of so much kindly abuse, took a new grandeur in the eyes of members of the Manawatu Women’s Club yesterday afternoon. Speaking of transport in Paris, Dr. W. M. Smith, M.A., Ph.D., sprung a surprise when he said the buses in operation there wore not up to the standard of the Palmerston North municipal buses. Of course he raised a laugh, but he repeated that such was the case. So that should be another feather in Palmerston North’s civic cap. The Minister of Defence (Hon. J. G. Cobbe) announced yesterday that the Government was going to ask Parliament to vote £SOOO this year to bring into effect the scheme suggested by the New Zealand Aero Club to provide a series of emergency landing grounds for aircraft in both islands. Relief labour will be used in preparing the grounds selected and the services of a Public Works engineer have been placed at the disposal of the Defence Department for the work, which would be started soon. A number of sites had been selected and the form of agreement with the landowners to preserve the rights of the Crown are being considered.

The hearing was continued in the Supreme Court at Dunedin of the case in which Charles Adolph Edvert Johnson, laboufer, Dunedin, claimed £2IOT 10s from John Bcrcsford Gillies, salesman, Dunedin, as damages for injury received through being knocked down by a motor-car in Princes street south on the night of June 20 of last year. Plaintiff, who lost a leg as the result of his injury, alleged negligence against tho defendant. Evidence was heard at length and the jury awarded plaintiff damages amounting to £l-107 10s. Mr Hanlon, for defendant, gave notice to move for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence. Claude McEwan and Paku Kingi, who were found guilty of using throats with intent to extort money, were brought before the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, for sentence at Wellington yesterday. The report of tee police was that McEwan was apparently a man of low mentality and defective understanding and limited education. Counsel said it might be that he was unable to adequately appreciate the seriousness of his offence. Kingi, described as a relief worker, was in ill-health and had several children. His Honour said he would take the circumstances into account and sentenced McEwan to nine months’ hard labour. Kingi was ordered to come up for sentence if called on in twelve months.

That there is a serious shortage of farm labour in several districts was mentioned at the meeting at Wellington of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, when delegates were discussing a South Taranaki remit which suggested that tho establishment of unemployment camps had aggravated the position and further suggested .that the camps should be disbanded during the summer season. Th 6 remit found little support, but an amendment moved by Mr E. H. E. Blyde, North Taranaki, that the attention of the Unemployment Board be drawn to the shortage of farm labour existing in certain districts, particularly in Taranaki, North Otago and Southland, and that tho board be asked to remedy the shortage, was carried jingaimousl® • -v.