Houses for Rural Workers

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 145, 22 June 1939, Page 3

Houses for Rural Workers

CALLED TOR BY FARMERS' UNION Discussing the Government’s housing scheme at the meeting of the Wellington Central provincial of the Farmers’ Union at Marton on Tuesday, Mr. D. G. Gordon (president) said that he hoped to move at the forthcoming Dominion conference of the union a proposition that where a farmer builds a house for his employee, the expenditure incurred be exempted from income So far, he said, the Government had not found a means whereby it could extend its housing scheme to rural workers. In his opinion the union had offered a way of overcoming the problems surrounding the mortgagee’s interest in the property and the matter of security for the housing loan but the Government had not seen fit to act. He thought it was only lair that if a farmer built a house for his employee that the expenditure should be exempted from taxation. Houses for employees wore necessary for the proper management and working of the farm in the same way as expenditure on fertilisers was necessary and essential to maintain the productivity of the farm. Workers had to be housed and without proper housing farm labour could not be attracted; no more could grass be encouraged to grow without fertiliser. Expenditure was not taxable when it was incurred on fertilisers and he did not think expenditure on houses for farm workers should be-taxed. If exemption was accorded such expenditure he felt that farmers would be encouraged to build on their own account and so provide the necessary accommodation for employees. Mr. Gordon went on to suggest that to meet the position and call for casual farm workers the Government should build cottages in rural centres and villages. Decent housing such as he visualised would keep the necessary casual labour always near at hand. The meeting agreed to bring the matter before the Dominion conference.