HOUSING IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 7

HOUSING IN AUCKLAND.

Sir, —In Friday's Herald appeared a report of a meeting of the City Council at which the chief sanitary inspector, in the course of his duties, drew attention | to somo families who Were living in tents and who have now been ordered to vacate. Now, the health of the community must be guarded, and in this case it seems to me it might have been guarded by requesting the occupants of the said tents to provide sanitary arrangements and drain their places. Their only crime seems to bo that which, in the eyes of Aucklanders. is the worst of all—poverty* What in the name of conscience is a man with four or five or sixchildren io do? If ho rents a miserable cottage he nnlst pay 30, 40, or even 50 shillings for the privilege of living in it. If his income is £4 or £5, or even £6 per week, how is he to live ? He must send his children to school. Ergo, they must bo decently clothed and fed. I am quito certain that one half of our people havo no conception of the pinching, and hardship, and ill-health from continual mental strain that the other half of the community is suffering from the necessity of paying exorbitant rents. It is, I submit, a crying shame that in a glorious climate like ours, with all the privileges we enjoy, the men and women who are doing their duty to the country by marrying and having healthy families should be reduced to physical wrecks by constant worry in the efideavour to make ends meet. It would have been far more . business-like, as well as humane, if thn council had said, "We will build each • party a four-roomed house on his section and'let him buy it by the payment of small sums, extending over a long X>criod." These are the sort of people we want to encourage. People who would be content to live in n tent till they could afford a house. We should do ail we can as a community to encourage men and women to maintain their selfrespect. People do not want charity, , they want right conditions, and wo 1 should endeavour to give them such. We ; shall have to change our standards, j Character is worth more than wealth. : There is no sin in a man having wealth if rightly used, but our Auckland standard, both in Church and in social 3 life, is not so much character as wealth. , Our aim should bo to give the man and { woman of character, however poor, a 1 chance. Large families, sickness, finan- * cial loss. etc.. often mean that the better ; man is looked down upon—because he is - poor. Will those people be better able to pay a 30s or 40s rent in throe months than* how ? If not. I expect it will ] mean gaol or tho road. J. Farquhakson Josnes. j