MAORI HOUSING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 248, 31 July 1937, Page 2

MAORI HOUSING

ASSISTANCE BY GOVERNMENT. MINISTER CONSIDERS SCHEME. (Per Press Association.) • WELLINGTON, July 30. Methods by which the Government was assisting the native people to obtain housing facilities and to improve their existing homes, were explained by the Acting-Minister for Native Affairs (the Hon. F. Langstone) to-night. The policy of the Government, said Mr Langstone, was to provide means for the rehabilitation of the Maori in comfortable homes more in accord with present-day standards of health and hygiene. In everything now being attempted for the uplift and benefit of the Maori people nothing was further 'from his mind than the giving of something for nothing. “For some time, and with the help of members of Parliament, members cf the Board of Native Affairs, and departmental officers, I have been endeavouring to arrange that some attention should be paid to the care and beautification of Maori pas, and in a few instances, and as a start, the natives have been employed at No. 5 scheme rates of pay to attend to this work. I would welcome the co-opera-tion and support of local bodies who have Maori pas or villages within their districts in furtherance of this campaign of parcleaning and beautification.” Loans for Houses. Mr Langstone said there were throe ways under which assistance was being given to provide Maori housing, and to improve existing houses. First, advances up to £750 could be made to any native applicant under the Native Housing Act of 1935 on approved security for the purpose fo erecting a new house, or effecting renovations or additions to existing houses. Should an advance in excess of £750 be required, and there was ample security, the Native Minister was required to obtain the authority of the Cabinet for such an increase. There were more than a dozen houses now being erected under the Native Housing Act, and a number of the existing houses were being renovated, repaired, added to, and painted. A condition of the advance was that all houses so assisted must be subject to supervision, to ensure they were kept up to the standard required as a security for the advance. Up to the present about £IO,OOO had been approved in advances for this work. Second, houses required for Maori farm occupiers or units under the native land development scheme, were built under the direction of the Department of. Native Affairs. About 300 small farm cottages were on the present programme of works. Some of these had been completed. indigent Natives. Third, the Government had initiated a housing scheme to meet the cases of indigent natives, who needed houses but who had neither land nor income other than wages or a pension to offer as a security for the amount required to build a dwelling. Cabinet had provided £50,000 for this puropSe, and already £6396 of this amount had been approved for expenditure. “In order to keep down the cost as much as possible, native labour will be used for this work,” said Mr Langstone. “Men will be employed under the Maori unemployment scheme, and paid accordingly. The work will be under expert supervision. Plans and .specifications of different types of houses have been drawn up by the Public Works Department. “In everything now being attempted for the uplift and benefit of the Maori people, nothing is farther from my mind than the giving of something for nothing. The natives will have to work and repay the advances. Even a pensioner who is provided with a house will be required to deduct a small amount out of his pension money to repay the advance expended for his benefit by a generous State.”