DEPLORED !

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 28, 23 September 1946, Page 3

DEPLORED !

HOUSING CONDITIONS MR W. SULLIVAN’S CRITICISM Attention to what he described as the deplorable housing position in country areas was drawn by Mr W. Sullivan (National, Bay of Plenty), when the Estimates were being considered in the fiouse of Representatives. There were school teachers in his electorate who had no option but to board at hotels and pay £3 or £4 a week and travel four or five miles to school, he said. A special effort should be made t.o provide accommodation for people in those circumstances. The general policy of the Government was largely responsible for the housing situation, because it had brought about shortages of materials which could have been produced within the country had they had, perhaps, a sane economic policy*

There had been all sorts of'cluttering up inside State Departments, said Mr Sullivan. Only in the last year or two. had action been taken by the State Forest Service to encourage millers to supply the quantities needed. The Minister of Works anticipated an increase of about 14 per cent, in the output of timber next year, and one sincerely hoped it would eventuate. The policy inside the department previously was something like a dog-in-the-manger one. The door had to be opened as wide as possible to encourage, not only the timber industry, but every other manufacturing industry that supplied materials for houses. Unless that was done, the housing problem would not be overcome for many years. Materials from outside the country had been locked out' because of the policy of the Government over a number of .yeai’s. Cement works were still being held up on account of non-deliveries of coal. In the south, the problem was shipping.

Recently, there was a movement on foot to increase the quantity of limber for Auckland city by 900,000 feet a month because of the greater number of votes in that city than in rural areas. To bring that about, supplies were cut down in various areas. The quota for the Bay of Plenty zone v/as reduced by 100,000 feet, the cut in the Hamilton zone was 33 1-3 per cent., and the Rotorua zone likewise reduced. In consequence, there was not sufficient material to keep the men fully employed in those districts, which meant that men were being taken away from rural areas and planted in the cities.