FAIR RENT LEGISLATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24723, 27 September 1941, Page 8

FAIR RENT LEGISLATION

It is unfortunate that an annual performance in Parliament—that of extending the operation of the Fair Rents Act—has come to be regarded in the light of a pure formality upon which discussion would be regarded as more or less superfluous. The Act does not operate in all cases so equitably as to justify its being regarded as a completely beneficial piece of legislation. There have, indeed, been not infrequent examples of injustice and hardship that are due to its operation, and it cannot, therefore, be without a certain amount of apprehension that many of those who are affected by it see an appearance of something like permanence given to an Act which was originally passed as a temporary expedient designed to prevent the exploitation of tenants during a period of housing shortage. Relief had during the depression been given to tenants by the enactment of provisions for the reduction and regulation of rentals, but these provisions were superseded in 1936, after the present Government came into power, by the passage of the Fair Rents Act. The Attorneygeneral, by whom this measure was sponsored, spoke in somewhat apologetic terms in his speech in moving the second reading of the Bill. He assured the House that it was not intended that the legislation would operate for very much more than a year. He based this assurance on the statement that long before the date at which the Act was to expire —long, that is, before September 30, 1937—the Government would have instituted a housing scheme “ which would mean the building of hundreds and thousands of homes for the people.” He added that “ when the people are properly housed, as they will be under the policy of the present Government, it will not longer be necessary to retain the legislation.” He went so far as to say that before this original measure i-an out—in other words before the expiry of fifteen months—the Government would “ have available for the people hundreds and thousands of decent homes.” The fact that the operation of the legislation has been extended year after year since these brave words were uttered five years ago obviously constitutes an admission on the part of the Government of the failure of its housing policy to attain the object with which it was instituted. The policy has actually failed in more than one respect. The Government has not built the class of house which it undertook to build. Nor has it built sufficiently to overcome the housing shortage. But, while it has itself failed in its object, it has virtually prohibited private enterprise from doing what it could to make good the shortage. In the meantime, the operation of a Fair Rents Act, which operates harshly in some cases and has been shown to be subject to abuse is, almost as a matter of course, being annually extended. A parliamentary review of this legislation and of its effects would be appreciated by a considerable section of the public.