FACTORY WORKERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 19, 2 September 1946, Page 5

FACTORY WORKERS

HOUSING ACCOMMODATION SOME INTERESTING FIGURES Dairy factory employees in New Zealand numbered 3697, the total number of houses for them provided by dairy companies was 1495, and the total number of houses estimated as still required was 486, stated Mr L. J. Rundle, chairman of the Bell Block Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd., New Plymouth, at the annual meeting of shareholders. Of the houses provided by dairy companies, 520 were free to employees, 407—0 f which about half were public works .cottages—were rented at less than 10s a week. Only 40 houses let to dairy factory employees commanded a rental of £1 a week or more, and only 134 were let at more than 7s 6d a week. It was becoming increasingly necessary, said Mr Rundle for the staffs of dairy factories to be adequately housed if the industry was to continue to operate efficiently. At last week’s meeting of suppliers to the Rangitaiki Dairy Company Mr Woodberry introduced the matter, maintaining that the directors of the company should take more positive steps to provide accommodation for members of the staff. He did not consider all that was possible had been done in the past. The chairman (Mr W. A. McCracken) said he understood Mr Woodberry’s concern in the matter and sympathised. Nothing the company could do would help him however, and while he agreed that a man owning a house had every right to it, as the law was today he could not get reasonable justice. Mr Marx: The only way to overcome it is to build houses. The chairman cited a case. of a Dairy Company building houses for its employees, and being unable to evict tenants even after they had left its employment. Mr Radcliffe said that even if it tvere decided to build houses there was no possibility of obtaining a permit,' and furthermore there was not the materials available for building.