AN AUSTRALIAN PARADOX
Seeks Immigrants, Yet Fails With Housing
“As in other places, the housing situation in Sydney is extremely difficult,” said Dr. S. Barton Babbage, Dean of Sydney, is visiting his parents in Wanganui. Interviewed by ''The Chronicle” yesterday he said the Government is tackling the situation in a way that many feel is short-sighted. ‘‘The mass-produced Government house is small, and a deterrent to couples to have families,” he said. “I think the situation is paradoxical. On the one hand the Government is trying to increase the population by wholesale immigration, and on the othe r discouraging the natural increase by failing to deal adequately with the housing shortage. “Most of the houses are being built of asbestos in an endeavour to conserve materials. The Government has decided that ceilings shall be no higher than eight feet. A consequence of the present situation is that there is a rampant black market in regard both to the sale and letting of houses. ‘Key money’ is invariably required by the prospective buyer or renter, and there is no written record of this transaction. The money does not appear in taxation returns, and hundreds of unscrupulous persons are making fabulous profits from the present situation.”
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19490217.2.23
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 4
Word Count
204AN AUSTRALIAN PARADOX Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 4
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