VACANT HOUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26746, 15 April 1948, Page 2

VACANT HOUSES

LOCAL BODIES’ OBLIGATIONS DISCRETIONARY POWERS CLAIMED The opinion that there did not appear to be any obligation on the local body concerned to search out vacant houses and keep them under observation under the provisions of the Fair Rents Amendment Bill was expressed by the president of the Municipal Association of New Zealand, Mr E. R. Neale, M.Pv of Nelson, in his address to the annual conference of delegates yesterday. Mr Neale said that the second part of the Bill dealt with the letting of unoccupied houses, and authorised local authorities to require the owners of such houses to let them. He said that he had come to the conclusion that the power vested _ in the local authority under the Bill was exercisable at its discretion, and therefore there was nothing in the measure to which the association could object. “ It appeared to me that the alternative would be for the State Advances Corporation to exercise the discretionary powers under the Bill, and I felt that it was better for an elected body of citizens to exercise that discretion rather than for a Government department or its officers to do so,” he added. “ The Minister, in introducing the Bill, expressed the hope that it would not be necessary to exercise its powers, and that the owners of occupied dwellings would see to it that they had the choice of future tenants and would take prompt steps to let their dwellings.”