THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20235, 21 October 1927, Page 12

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING SOCIETIES.

ADDRESS BY MR E. A. ROSEVEAR A comprehensive address dealing ’ with the assistance building societies have given in the solving of the housing problem and the important place they occupy among social institutions was given by Mr E. A. Rosevear {chairman of directors of the United Starr-Bowkett Building Society) at the annual meeting of the society* last night. “ .Starr-bowkett building societies encourage systematic thrift by every means in their power,” said Mr Rosevear. ” They create an incentive for saving in the minds of hundreds of people to whom the normal channels of investment present no attractions whatever, and encourage them to form habits which persist even after the primary object has been attained. Tha fdtarr Bowkett investor consciously or unconsciously becomes a social benefactor, for he is employing his surplus funds i-o enable his fellows to be well housed and to acquire capital value and a stake in the country. Such an investment cannot clash with the strictest demands of ethics. The value of the Starr Bowkett Building Society movement is not to be measured by statistics, but in its inherent capacity to develop character among the citizens of a country. “ The great common dominator of British life is the home. The decline of home life is the first retrograde step of a nation, and any influence which tends to strengthen home life, tends to establish and consoiidatS all that is best and permanent m the Dominion. The home owner takes a justifiable pride in his property, and is ever conscious of the fact that all he spends in money and labour thereon serves but to bind him moia closely to the home of his choice. Tha working man who is merely a tenant has no real anchorage, no permanent abiding place. Home ownership is a civic and national asset. The benefits of home ownership are not only material, but ethical and moral as well. The man who has something to protect and improve—a stake of some sort in the country—naturally turns his thoughts in the direction of sane, ordered, and perforce economical government. “No doubt- many of you must have been impressed with the two cables that have appeared in our papers within this last fortnight referring to the housing question in Britain. (Further, the Otago Daily Times also referred to the question in a very appreciative leader. Over a million houses have been built in England and Wales since the armistice, which is a remarkable achievement. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, who made known these facts, also stated that nearly 350,000 of the houses had been erected without any subsidy. If my reading of the position is correct (and 1 may say 1 have given the subject every consideration and kept myself in close touch with the question) my judgment is that both the leading article and the cables should have given some credit to the building societies for their wonder, ful contribution to a world record and the greatest social contribution that had been made in Great Britain since the war. “ In reviewing a book just published a little more than a month ago, the editor of Public Opinion stated that it is gradually being recognised that the housing problem, which is well on its way to solution, owes more to building societies than to the legislation of Parliament. The book referred to bv the general manager of the Abbey Road‘Building Society, the largest metropolitan society of London, of which Sir Josiah Stamp is the president, quotes Sir Kingsley Wood, the parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Health—the same "gentleman who supplied the information for the cables—as naving declared that ‘ the advances by the State to enable people to own their own houses are insignificant beside the great help given by the building societies of the country. The author of the book goes on to say: ‘This candid avowal should remove misapprehension and enable the public to accord the honours where they rightly belong.’ The following facts place the question beyond dispute. Subsequent to* the armistice and up to January, 1927, the Minister of Health sanctioned the borrowing by local authorities of just oyer £33,000,000 for the purpose of making advances uncler the Housing Act and the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act. During the same period building societies cofnpleted advances for over £255,000,000. or seven times the amount made available from the public purse. Clearly, the building society movement can claim of place for the magnitude of its contribution towards the solution of the housing problem. “In a letter addressed to the chairman of the National Association of Building Societies, dated October 5, 1925, the Prime Minister of England, in this letter which was reproduced extensively in the press of England, drew attention to the strides made by the building societies during tha past few years. The figures, Mr Stanley Baldwin went on to say, indicated a steady increase of the number of those ■who were becoming the owners of their own homes. This tendency towardes home_ ownership is a noteworthy feature of • post-war liousing progress and a hopeful sign of national stability. “Mr Ramsay MacDonald states that 100,000 houses are required every year, and the contribution of building societies to this total is probably unequalled by any other single agency in the country. Building society figures are colossal, but behind them is an equally striking gain in human liberty and happiness.” “ The building societies throughout the Dominion have been in operation only a few short years, and were in the main little known and purely local associations. To-day, by virtue of the indispensable social service they render to all classes of the community, they have earned the undisputable right to a place in the front rank of the great institutions. Quoting from the 927 Year Book, the building societies of New Zealand from 1921 to 1926 have advanced no less an amount than £20,817,427 to 54,307 borrowers, the I average amount borrowed over the same period being £382 Is.” Members expressed appreciation of Mr Rosevear’s address.