CANBERRA PROBLEM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18263, 5 December 1933, Page 5

CANBERRA PROBLEM

BRIDEGROOM’S SALARY LESS THAN TREASURY’S DEDUCTIONS CANBERRA, Nov. 23. The acute shortage of houses for public servants in Canberra has presented a problem to the Federal Treasury. A public servant who has just been married cannot be supplied with a house, and, with his bride, has been compelled to seek rooms in the Government accommodation houses. The man receives a salary of £lO 0s Lid a fortnight, but charges which the Treasury deduct from it, including those for accommodation and superannuation, amount to £lO Is 8d a fortnight. The man thus owes the Treasury Is (Id a fortnight when tho transactions have been adjusted. The officer concerned is showing much forbearance. He says that ho hopes that his- supply of clothing will last until a house cun be built. In the meantime, tho Is Od a fortnight is tho affair of the Treasury. The only request he makes is that an endeavor should be made to find accommodation for hirnsolf and bis wife in the same hotel. So great is the shortage of rooms that at present his wife is living in a building at the opposite end of the city to that in which he has been accommodated.