STATE HOUSING SCHEME

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19132, 29 September 1936, Page 5

STATE HOUSING SCHEME

CONTROLLER CONFIDENT CREATION OP ASSETS USING NATION’S CREDIT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. “I feel that we are going to succeed, and that we can administer the State’s credit to create tangible assets of value to the nation’s home life and health,” said Mr. J. A. Lee, M.P., the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance, and controller of the national housing scheme, in an election address at Onehunga last night, when he forecast the future of the Dominion as the result of the Government’s building programme. “I want prayers rather than your cribs for expediency, because I don’t want to issue verbal cheques until there are houses in our banking account,” said Mr. Lee. lie spoke of the unique features of the scheme, saying that it was the first time in the history of a democratic country that the' financial system had been used for the purpose of bettering the lot of the people as a whole. Building was a great*employer of unskilled labour, he added. There was-, no trade which was not’ affected by prosperity in building, and since the. Government’s announcement of its scheme more than half the members of the Opposition had referred to the soundness and sanity of it. • SHORTAGE FOR YEARS

They now realised that the halting of building activity'had been a cause of widespread misery. “New Zealand has known a shortage of houses for many years, but Labour’s programme of assisting the people to find their feet is going to make the position more acute than it has ever been, and we must do something to relieve it,” Mr. Lee said. Instead of sending young men into i slave compounds and breaking their hearts and preventing their marrying, the Labour Party intended to find them ah income, so that they might fulfil their rightful destiny. In marrying they would want homes, and the State would have to build for them. The scheme had nothing to do with the State Advances scheme, which would continue as at present. Under the housing scheme, land was to be acquired and homes that were homes would be erected. In certain features, such as sewage appliances and gas stoves, they would be alike, but the scheme would be so planned that 500 or 600 houses would be erected at a time with no two the same in external appearance... CO-OPERATION HOPED As far as possible, it -was intended to build them with New Zealand materials. It was hoped that the cooperation of the building trade would be secured. The trade would be assured of a fair deal, but if any person or organisation tried-to extort undue profits, thereby creating an unfair loading cost on the houses, the Government would take steps to deal with them and, if necessary, go into business itself. We are faced with a shortage of skilled building craftsmen, a legacy from the last Government,” said Mr Lee. “However, we intend to discuss with labour organisations which have been sympathetic towards us the matter .of training young men to be craftsmen. We intend to give them the opportunity, that was denied them during.-the depression, of learning a .trade.

“Thousands of people have already written asking for one of our houses,” Mr. Lee concluded. “When the time comes they will be allotted fairly. The scheme will be a long and continuing one* providing healthy work for every virile young man in New Zealand. The basis of future prosperity lies in the home life of its people. Eventually it is hoped to extend the scheme for the benefit of deserving farmers, who are as much entitled to it as any city dweller.”