Amended Act Made Useless

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 61, 28 June 1948, Page 5

Amended Act Made Useless

BARRING HOLIDAY HOUSES FROM LAW “It is the considered opinion of my Association that 1000 houses obtainable under these terms (extension of the Fair Rents Amendment Act to cover holiday houses) would have been the. biggest single contribution to the housing situation of a temporary nature that it was possible to achieve. Is it any wonder that my Association considers that not only the Government but the whole House did not give the Bill the consideration it merited,” said Mr C. Q. Bell, retiring president, in his address to the annual meeting of the Dominion Council of the R. at Wellington last week. , “As the Prime Minister and his .colleagues know this Act was passed as a result of representations by the N.Z.R.S.A., and other Ex-Ser-vicemen’s Association supported it,” he said. “The Prime Minister was go'od enough to consult with the R.S.A. in. connection with the legislation before bringing it before Parliament. Immediately my Association perused the legislation it was .found that, holiday accommodation had been excluded. I am pleased to .say that the Prime Minister, at the request of our Dominion Vice-Pre-sident (Major-General H. K. Kippanberger), who led the deputation, agreed that holiday accommodation should be included in the Bill. “Unfortunately, when the Bill went on the floor of the House, both the Government and the Opposition agreed to the deletion of the clause. This rendered the Bill; in our opinion, useless. From information gleaned from the 1946 Census it was established that on the right of the Census there were 5,896 houses temporarily vacant, 7,036 houses permanently vacant, and 10,775 seaside cottages vacant. “We are aware of the many reasons why a very large, proportion of these houses could be and were vacant on that night but we feel sure that throughout New Zealand at least 1000 houses, with reasonable living amenities and sufficiently close to employment, could have been made available immediately, had holiday houses not been excluded from the Bill. “We are aware that it was an interference with private property; so was Conscription an interference with personal liberty. At least half of the people affected as owners, including myself would be Ex-Service-men. “Provision could have been made for these houses to have been available until say 31/3/50 when the Fair Rents Act would have ceased to apply and the landlord' could then have obtained vacant possession outside the provision of the Fair'Rents Act.”