NOTES AND COMMENTS

Patea Mail, Volume XLIV, 6 August 1920, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Old members of the Wairoa Mounted Rifles will remember Staff-Sorgt.-Major Brown, who was a conspicuous figure at the annual encampments in the early 'nineties. They will no doubt rejoice to learn that the gallant major is now to spend the autumn of his lays in (ho honourable and more peaceful occupation of Sorgeant-at-Arms in ( ho House of Representatives. 1! !! I 1! Tho local lighting system has been responsible for more profanity than anything else for some time past, but die public “carry on” (in more than one sense) and hope for bettor things when the hydro dam is finished. If diis is not a success, then there will probably be dams of another kind floating around. ! I !!! !! The annual meeting of tho Chamber if Commerce is due to take place on Monday next. It will be a pity not to revive the Chamber, as no small portion of the progress and propscrity visible in the town is due to the work of the Chamber in the past. It was ; his body, by the way, that set on foot (he agitation for the sale of the borough leasehold sections that were tied ip as grazing paddocks, the leases containing no compensation clauses for improvements, thus preventing the land being built upon. Tho wisdom of tho Chamber’s action is shown in one particular case that it quoted when waiton the Council as a deputation. This particular block of land was paying the magnificent sum of twelve shillings a year in rates before the Chamber* moved in the matter, and next year the rates from this block should total well over £IOO. One quarter-aero section 10-day out of the twelve pays more (ban £lO a year in rates, so the change was a step in the right direction. !! !!! 1 ! Tim housing problem in Patca is as acute as anywhere in the Dominion, and it seems a pity that out of the 200 houses that the Government arc about io erect in various parts of the Dominion not one is to be erected in this (own. However, Patea is not the only place in the Dominion that is suffering from tho same evil, as the following footnote to a letter in the New Plymouth Ilea rid shows. The editor says: Owing to the acute shortage of houses, the New Plymouth Borough Council, in common with local bodies in other parts of the Dominion, is experiencing difficulty in maintaining the services of employees because they are unable to obtain homes. In several instances employees have had to leave New Plymouth for no other reason than that they wore unable to find a house. The whole of this £IO,OOO loan will be utilised for the erection of houses for employees. A rate has to be struck as security for the raising of of the loan, but it is not intended that it shall bo collected. The houses are to bo lot at a rental that will be sufficinot to pay all instalments of interest and principal. Tho Government is lending the money at a very low ratp of interest —1) per oent.—so that this can be done. The crux of the whole question is that the Government is anxious to do all it can to provide dwellings to meet the acute shortage, but cannot erect them fast enough, and is encouraging local bodies to assist, ■ i! in n The Stratford Borough Council is availing itself of the provisions of the legislation lately passed to cope with the housing difficulty, and is calling for tenders for the building of eight houses which it proposes to erect on Municipal reserves. It is also arranging to obtain some of the spare cash that is so 'plentiful nowadays with some, offering I per cent, interest for the money at call.