FACTORS AGAINST INCREASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 9, 24 March 1947, Page 4

FACTORS AGAINST INCREASE

STATE house allocations

“From time to time the Council has pressed for an increased allocation of State rental houses to exservicemen. The Government however must keep in mind the whole picture,” said the Minister of Rehabilitation, Hon. C. F. Skinner, at the quarterly meeting of the Rehabilitation Council. The Minister was replying to questions asked and suggestions made as to the means of overcoming the housirig problem existing among ex-servicemen.

“It is felt,” said Mr Skinner, “that if discrimination were made against civilians entirely in favour of exservicemen then we would certainly have reactions detrimental to rehabilitation.”

The Minister quoted the case of single unit farms and Section 51 of the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act. “When I announced that I would not operate Section 51 in the case of single unit properties being sold to ex-servicemen it had the effect of that type of farm Being offered only to ex-servicemen. That is what we were trying to achieve. There were however men, other than ex-servicemen, many of whom were kept in the country during the war years against their will, who were unable to obtain single unit farms, and many of them were disgruntled. “If the Government did what, has been suggested with all houses it would eventually work against the interests of ex-servicemen. After all, there are far more civilian applicants than ex-servicemen; and should the preference for ex-ser-vicemen be carried too far we would adversely affept a large section of people whose co-operation is needed to make Rehabilitation a success.

“As it is, in some parts of New Zealand it is not so difficult for an ex-serviceman to get a house. In these places there are comparatively few civilian applications, and exservicemen actually receive more than 50 per cent. I want to encourage elasticity of that nature. “The only real answer is to build more houses, and the difficulty at present is the shortage of vital materials necessary for finishing them.”