HOUSING OF WORKERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5669, 17 August 1905, Page 6

HOUSING OF WORKERS.

TffK RKORLIvM OF TO-DAY. INCREASE OF lIOFSE BUNTS. Tho housing problem is dealt with by Uif! Secretary of Labour in bin annual report. l ‘f ix*g again,” bo says, to emphasise the tenor of tho remarks made by mo bust year in a mcmoramliun prenenlod to Parliament. and entitled ‘High Wages and their Kxploitation.’ Tiio Kijhjent grows hourly to greater importvmco. fts hearing, particularly on organised labour, in connection with the rents demanded in cities is of a very serious nature. In order to procure statistical data for this branch of the subject, circulars were sunt out to workers’ unions all over the colony, arid siillieie.nt response has been made (o enable valuable conclusions to be arrived at. generally the return shows Dial the rents are in ratio to earnings—in Auckland, 28 per cent.; in Wellington, lid per cent.: in Christchurch, 2o percent.: in Dunedin, 2". percent.; in Gisborne, 27 per cent. ; in Napier, 2.i per cent.: in Wanganui, 24 per cent.; in Nelson, 2(1 per cent.

"It may bo noted that considerable difference’ exists Ix.-twecn the rales of rent in cities and in rural districts, the town-dweller having a far heavier levy on Ids resources than the agricultural labourer or rural artisan. To counterbalance this, the town-dweller draws a higher wage, hut—and I ask for special notice for this point—in no fair ratio; the higher wage is no real equivalent for the increased outlay. A largo factor in the town-worker’s expenses does not show in his direct rent bill. While the filial worker pays loss rent, he in almost every case either grows Ids own vegetables and fruit, or could do bo if be chose, while, in town the fruit and vegetables have had a considerable addition to their cost made by being wold in heavilv-renled shops. This is true, of course' also of other things besides fruit and vegetables. Tho groceries, tho meat, the bread, tiio garments, the hoots, arc all heightened in price to the consumer indirectly by excessive rents, ,1-0 tho heavy direct rent of the workers house is supplemented by the universal .extra rent levied through his supplies. It is, therefore, no wonder that under this pressure of direct and indirect rentcharges tho cost of living increases day by dav, and tho wages of tho worker have less and less purchasing power. The slight advance in workers’ wages has kept, I repeat, no fair ratio with the advance of tho price of tho necessaries of life. Sir Coghlan the Government Statistician of Now South Wales, allirms that wages in New’ Zealand increased 85 per cent, in fifteen years. As house rent in tho cities has increased at least 30 per cent., and many of the necessaries of life from 10 per cent to fid per cent, in that time, tho reason for what employers • stigmatise as tho incessant demand for higher wages becomes not only to bo understood but to bo excused.

‘■lf, ns is sometimes alleged, tho cost of house-rent had risen on account of bho higher price of timber and increased wages paid in the building trades, such rise in' rent would have a reasonable basis. Nine out of ton, however, of bho houses (especially in Wellington) wore built before the time when such a plea could bo advanced, and “the high prioo of labour at prosont” oan hardly explain why a bouse should be let when it is old and rotten for £1 os por week which when new produced only 17s. Tho answer is, of course, that the present cost of labour and materials has nothing to do with tho question. The liigh rent is demanded because persons noeding houses are driven to sacrifice an uuduo portion of their income through bho necessity of having roofs of some sort over the heads of their families. Therefore tho project entertained by tho Government of assisting the wage-earners by obtaining land for them, and by making advances to enable thorn to build their own dwellings, is hailed with delight by tho workers, especially by tho workers in towns. Tho project opens up a door of escape against the crushing system of exploitation by which the owner of private lands and private dwellings in cities and suburbs is taking an over-increasing proportion of the wages paid in industries. There can certainly be no reason why tho town worker, who as a taxpayer, has to share the guarantee by means of which tho country settler obtains cheap money wherewith to improve his property, should not have a reciprocal duty performed for him in his turn.

“A scheme insuring cheap houses in bho suburbs, and easy ' communication ivitil industrial centres by low fares for Workmen's trains,’ would not only bo a direct benefit to workers, but to others, by relieving the competition for town residences, and would exercise a highly desirable check on the growing rents of town dwellings, now occupied almost (through want of alternative) by compulsion. "With tho pressure of population removed from tho centres, not only will this compulsory payment of high rents comparatively cease, but tliis will also probably lower tho indirect rent-burden, as shops, following the workers’ suburban settlement, will then not necessarily bo situated in a few crowded thoroughfares; nor will tho shopkeeper find that, hard as he may toil to pay his rent, the rent increases at a racing pace with the expiry of each short lease. Occupying wider spaces and healthier breedinggrounds, the cities may have a chance to roar citizens under conditions which Dr Mason, Chief Health Officer of the Government, declared in his last annual report to bo impossible in tho congested state of our present urban life.”