COSTLY DWELLINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19994, 10 November 1927, Page 3

COSTLY DWELLINGS

HOUSES FOR WORKERS “ONLY PRETENDERS.” SYDNEY, Nov. 1. “You are pretending you are doing something for the workers in your scheme for building flats in the city, but you are only pretenders. You are not helping the workers one little bit. You aje no better than blood-suckers. You will be dragging the last penny of rent from the workers for 25 or 30 years, aad» at the end of that time they will not own a brick in the house.” This charge was made at a meeting of the Sydney City Council when the Labour caucus forced through the council a resolution to resume Fowler’s Pottery area, at Camperdown, at a cost of £24,000, for the erection of workers' 5 homes and a recreation area. Aiderman O’Brien said the value of the land for the houses on the frontage facing the new streets would bo from £2O to £3O a foot. The richest men in Sydney could not afford land at that price for their homes, and it would be cruel to compel the workers to pay the rent that would' have to be charged for the homes. Houses for worker.* should be built on cheap land outside the city. Aiderman Walder: But the Labour Party would not then have voters in the city. Aiderman Courtney moved that the matter be referred back for further information and full plans, but this was defeated by a majority Labour vote. Aiderman O’Brien declined? to support the Labour caucus in this vote. He said it was a disgraceful proposal for the Labour Party to submit. The Reform aidermen gave notice of a rescission motion to have the matter deferred until detailed plans and estimates were submitted.