REHABILITATION PROBLEMS

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1237, 3 July 1947, Page 2

REHABILITATION PROBLEMS

LAND SETTLEMENT AND HOUSING Back Broken In Other Fields ■Housing and land settlement were still the main problems in rehabilitation, said the Minister of Rehabilitation, Hon. C. F. Skinner, addressing’ the quarterly meeting of the rehabilitation council at Wellington. He fell sufficient progress had been made in other rehabilitation fields to warrant saying the back of the problems in those fields had been broken, but with housing and land- settlement, although much had been achieved, much remained to be done. It was well to realise that 21,000 ex-servicemen had been- p revid-ed with housing- accommodation-, either by loans to purchase or build, or by provision of a State house. This was arpart from the 4000 who had been housed as a result of assistance to buy established farms. “Lack of building materials and shortage of labour in the industry has held up the housing programme,” said Mr. Skinner. “Short of taking measures to compel owners cf vacant houses to make them available for letting-, 1 do not know of any other avenue which has not been explored in an endeavour to alleviate the position. The methodof compulsion referred to has been used in Victoria and other Australian states, and in Canada and South Africa. The Government here is at present awaiting reports from those countries, as to how tha legislation is workinjjl” In the field ci State housing the rehabilitation organisation was the biggest and its standard cf construction compared most favourably with those of private contmcto s. Building Casts Referring to building costs, Mr. Skinner said it was gratifying’ to nc-te that contracts- were recently approved by Cabinet at under 30s a square foot. This shewed that competition was coming back into the industry, The timber position had also improved ovetr the past year,

and the figure for the year just completed the most that had ever been produced in a single year. This had been achieved in spite of shortage of labour. 1 ‘ Further labour had- been attracted to the timber industry, and a. .still further increase was expected, mainly as a result of the timber workers’ accommodation scheme, under which a levy of 6d per 1000 feet of timber was made and pooled for the building of suitable accommodation. Contracts had already been let for the building of some hundreds of cottages which would house timber workers under the scheme. They had: the same facilities as State rental houses, though smaller in- size, and could be dismantled in three sections. It was felt that the scheme would ensure sufficient men in the industry to produce the 400,00-0,000 feet of timber which was the aim for next year. Forty new mills had recently commenced operations and more would be opening as- the year progressed. Regarding land settlement, there were still problems of supply of fencing wire, housing materials and fertiliser’s, although with rega-d to the last item the Phosphate Commission had stated- that before the end cf the present year phosphate would be available in greater quantities than before the war.