HOUSE FAMINE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19455, 14 October 1937, Page 5

HOUSE FAMINE

PROBLEM IN AUCKLAND HOME SEEKERS' PLIGHT GREAT STRATEGY NEEDED ARMY OF'DETECTIVES (Special to tlao Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. House hunting in Auckland to-day is a task that calls for physical endurance, resource, persistence, and great powers of strategy. Given all these, few people succeed in their quest without a good measure of luck. A complete stranger arriving in Auckland and wanting to rent a house has about as much chance of finding one as the famous Buckley had of escaping justice. Even the help of good friends avails little. The only hope is to gain the largest possible store of local knowledge, especially about .people, and their family and business affairs, in order to. learn cf any remote possibility that some household may be moving elsewhere. The full amount of such detective work that goes on all the time is known only to the womenfolk, whom the male sex cannot rival as collectors of personal information. Close Watch Kept An extraordinarily close watch is kept upon civil servants, school teachers, bank officials, and all others whose occupation makes them liable to be moved from place to place. The merest hint or rumour that departure is possible suffices to bring numbers of inquiries from friends, and even total strangers.

When a family really is vacating a house, it is often found that the landlord has another tenant already in mind. Sometimes there is even a waiting list. Failing that, the departing occupants are apt to choose the most deserving case among their own friends and recommend it for favourable consideration.

Personal acquaintance is the essence of success in finding a home in a well-frequented street. It is a risky matter to move furniture into or out of a house, as the mere sight of such activities is almost certain to bring callers and telephone rings. Even without any such encouragement, home seekers do a great deal of random prospecting.

Practically all land agents have long lists of people wanting to rent houses and unfurnished fiats, with next to no hope of supplying them. Unfurnished flats are almost as hard to obtain as houses. Many families have been obliged to store their furniture and take furnished flats as a temporary measure. Estate agents see no hope of early relief from the house famine, and none is likely to come until private building regains the level it had in earlier times of prosperity.

workers in England, as well as their employers, paid insurance. It was necessary to add these payments in any comparison, and the charge in England was greater. Mr. Coates: No.

The Minister, ignoring the denial, went on to state that New Zealand's taxation covered all services, for the police, health service, and education were national ones in the Dominion, though in England the local authorities levied taxes to pay the cost of the police and education. Therefore, every penny paid for education in New Zealand should be taken off the total in any comparison, and having taken off £2 14s per capita, the Opposition total of £22 a head was reduced to £2O, and it could be further reduced by taking off the cost of the police service, which was 6s or 7s per head. The Opposition had been misleading the country in saying that New Zealand was the highest taxed country in the world. Mr. Coates: No, the Empire.

The Minister, referring to the Ministerial handbook, declared that income tax happened to be higher in South Australia. Mr. Coates: No. Mr. Nash retorted that the tax on £4OO in New Zealand was £l2 9s 8d and in South Australia £22 0s Bd, but someone had neen good enough to say in the denate that the United Kingdom was a heavily taxed country and made comparisons with Spain, Italy, and other Continental countries. “I reached the conclusion,” added Mr. Nash, “that the most heavily taxed country was that in which the standard rif living was the highest, because there the revenue was high.” Mr. W. A. Bodkin (Nat., Central Otago): What about taxation in Russia? The Minister said it was because New Zealand was heavily taxed to lift incomes to a reasonable level that the Dominion was the best little country in the world. Criticism had been levelled at the expenditure on certain social facilities. Education, for instance, cost more in 1928 than when the present Government came into office. Surely, the Opposition could not legitimately jibe at the Government for bringing it back into the position claimed for it in 1929. The expenditure would be increased until it was brought back to that position Referring to the fact that the land tax revenue was £250,000 less than the estimate, Mr. Nash explained that there had been a faulty estimate in respect to the assessments because the valuations had been five years behind when the present Government assumed office. Mr. Coates: When you make a mess of your own estimates blame somebody else. The Minister said that in future the Government would be more careful in accepting figures left ny the right hon. gentleman. Mr. Coates wanted to know whether the pigeon holes had been searched. Mr. Nash: The pigeon holes were well cleaned out before we got there. We found nothing in them. The cupboard was empty. (Government laughter).