NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17890, 19 September 1921, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRJTISH HOUSING , POLICY.

An official statement of the British Government's housing policy was made recently by Sir Aubrey Symonds, Second Secretary of the Minister for Health. He said there were two distinct building schemes—one was that being carried out by local authorities, and the other was that of the private builders' subsidy scheme. The local authorities were being limited to 176,000 houses. Under the private builders' scheme for houses that were begun but not finished by December 23 the subsidies would be paid by the Government. Where persous had purchased sites and definitely entered into financial commitments to erect houses, the grants would be given provided the houses were started before August 24 this year. As to slum areas, the position was in accordance with the recommendations of Mr. Neville Chamberlain's Committee, which was a policy of amelioration. The proposal was to spend £200,000 a year in improving houses rather than in pulling down whole areas to be rebuilt later. Pulling down _ houses would increase the shortage and increase overcrowding. The estimated number of houses io be built by private builders was between 24,000 and 25,000, or, roughly, with those to be erected by local authorities, 200,000. The number already completed was about leaving '140,000 either building or to be built. Generally speaking, the Ministry anticipated that the bulk of those houses would be built and finished within the next 12 months. The annual cost to the State under the local authorities' scheme was about £10,000,000. That was a continuing charge, and would go on so long as the loan? were outstanding, subject to a reduction as the loans were paid off, And to a hoped-for reduction in *Le rate of interest. In addition, there was the sum of £5,000,000 due to the private builders.

EDWARD THE PEACEMAKER. London's memorial to. King Edward Vn. has taken the form of an equestrian statue—the work of Sir Bertram Mac-Kennal—-in Waterloo Place and the establishment of a park in East London. The statue was unveiled by King George on July 20, and in the course of his speech His Majesty said: —"My father was above all a lover of peace. During the years of «is reign it was his constant aim to promote friendship and a better understanding between the (nations. His work of conciliation has nov been wasted. We owe it largely to his influence that the great conflagration, when it broke out, found us not an isolated nation, but with old contentions forgotten and ancient quarrels healed, united in bonds of close friendship with our former rivals. The war through which we have passed, which seemed to mark the negation of all his efforts, may prove to have been a purification of the thoughts and minds of men, and the forerunner of that goodwill between nations which he desired and laboured to create. It is indeed fitting that the statue of a King who lived and worked* for peace should be unveiled, not in the midst of a world war, but now that the aspirations of all men of goodwill have already taken tangible form in the first beginnings of a League of Nations. . . . I trust that this monument may stand for ever to bear testimony to King Edward's virtue as a man and as a Sovereign, and to the love and reverence which the citizens of his capital city bore to him and bear to his memory. In the first speech which he made after his accession to the throne, he said:—"l am determined to be a constitutional Sovereign in the strictest sense of the word, and as long as there is breath in my bodv to work for the good and amelioration of my people." That this promise was abundantly fulfilled, both in the letter and in the spirit, is well known to all who were bis subjects, and not least to the people of London, among whom he lived for so many years, and whom ho loved sc well.