Workers' Dwellings.

Northern Advocate, 21 September 1906, Page 3

Workers' Dwellings.

THE POSITION AT PETONE. LABOUR VIEWS. Much curiosity has been aroused as to why so few applications have been received for the workers' dwellings recently completed at Petone, and in order to ascertain the reasons of this unexpected development, a representative of the Wellington Post has been interviewing the prominent Labour leaders of (he city. Judging from what was said by Mr D. McLaren, Secretary of the Wharf Labourers' Union, the position docs not come as much of a surprise. Mis idea is, in the first place, that the deposit of a week's rent required by the regulations to be sent in with the application is sufficient to deter a very great many people who are already fairly well circumstanced in the matter of accommodation. But he goes further. Petone, he argues, was \not by any means a suitable place in (which to make the experiment. There is no congestion out there, there is plenty of land on which to build, and the hardships are practically non-ex-istent. Also, things have been said about the sanitary arrangements of the dwellings, which have probably deterred many from applying. Mr McLaren, however, insists that the proper place to have commenced the experiment was Wellington City, and that it should have been carried out on lines which would have put the workers' dwellings in active competition with the slum houses which constitute a standing disgrace to the city and the municipality. Any one can get a more or less decent house at Petone, but in Wellington some of the workers are living under conditions which ought not to be tolerated for one moment, and it is in those congested areas, in his opinion, that the experiment should have been first made. Consequently, he is not disposed to look upon the fact that only three applications have been sent in for the Petone dwellings with any degree of surprise. Mr McLaren's idea is that the problem of supplying dwellings for workers should be tackled not by the Government, but by municipalities. It is a local and not a colonial affair, and can best be carried out by the local authorities, more particularly in Wellington. He points out that the colonial municipalities have less power in this direction than are possessed by similar bodies in the Old Country, and appears to think that the' problem of providing homes for workers in congested centres such as Wellington can best be solved by investing the municipalities with full powers to acquire slum areas, pull down the wretched hovels which in some cases pose as dwelling houses, and erect in their place houses which will be fit to live in and decent to look upon.