RENTS FOR DWELLINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21600, 22 March 1932, Page 10

RENTS FOR DWELLINGS

LABOUR LEADER’S COMPLAINT SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTION URGED (From Oub Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, March 21.. “The time has come when it should be made a criminal offence to refuse to let a dwelling because there are children in the family,” declared the Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E. Holland), reviewing the question of city house rents in the House of Representatives this evening, and advocating a statutory reduction of rents on residential properties by at least 20 per cent. Quoting from the evening paper Mr Holland said that every Saturday evening there were two columns and a-half of to-let notices in the paper, which showed the reason why people were being driven from suburban homes and forced to live several families together in city tenements. In very many cases it was stipulated that only adults would be accepted as tenants, and it became a penalty for prospective tenants to have children. He quoted figures which included three-roomed and four-roomed houses for which 30s and up to more than £2 were asked.

The Prime Minister (Mr G. W. Forbes): Are they the lowest? Mr Holland: They are averages. I took the trouble to work them out. We find three rooms and two rooms for 27s fid. In Tory street—by no means an aristocratic quarter of the city—two rooms are offered for 10s, four rooms at Kilbirnie for 375-fid, and so on. Will the Government say how any ordinary worker can pay rentals of this figure? Mr Forbes: They are evidently not paying it or there would not be these empty houses. Mr Holland: They are owing it, and will be pressed for it if they do not pay. The Government gives the court power to protect the mortgagor, but would it not be logical to give some protection to the worker?

Mr Forbes: The Rent Restriction Act gives them that.

Mr Holland: The Prime Minister knows that the Rent Restriction Act is not worth a snap of the fingers except for old houses built before the war, and even then it is of no use. It has been said many times in this House, and not only from the Labour side, that we have no right to take from the worker in rent more than one day’s pay, but here wo see a whole week’s wage going in rent.

Mr A, J. Stallworthy: Do your figures show anything about the return to the landlord.

Mr Holland: No; but I say there is a liability that remains in the case of the worker when rent is unpaid, and if the rent is paid the family is forced to go without the necessities of life on the present standard of wages. If the Government is not aware of these rentals it should be aware of them, because it has a statistical department, or any member may see them by reading the evening paper and working out the averages. Relief from this position, Mr Holland said, should be given by a statutory reduction by the Government of rents on residential properties. Mr Stallworthy: Would you advocate a universal flat rate?

Mr Holland: No; but I say a reduction of not less than 20 per cent.