Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JULY 18, 1949 MOVE IN RIGHT DIRECTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 13, 18 July 1949, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JULY 18, 1949

MOVE IN RIGHT DIRECTION

Though until recently somewhat in the doldrums, the Eastern Bay of Plenty branch of the Home Servicemen’s Association seems to have snapped out of its slumber to some purpose. Its decision to ask our district M.P. to make representations to the Minister in Charge of State Housing for an allocation committee here is the most positive step any body here has taken lately to try to make the difficult task of housing the homeless a little easier. The further decision to convene a conference of all bodies likely to be interested in the nousing problem and this aspect of it in particular might well !.ead to really big steps forward.

There seems little room for doubt that a group of local people would be better able to acquaint themselves fully with the circumstances of local people than officials stationed at Tauranga, no matter how conscientious the latter might be. And it would appear that, in assessing cases of relative hardship, nothing but on-the-spot investigation can truly establish the facts. It will have to be admitted that a committee could err, even as officialdom can undoubtedly err, but the likelihood of error would undeniably be reduced if we had our own committee sifting individual cases and determining priorities on the spot. So much for the arguments in favour of a committee. No doubt those and any other arguments will be placed before the Minister by Mr Sullivan before long, and it will be surprising if. the Minister does not hear them sympathetically, realising, as he must realise, that the appointment of an allocation committee here would not only lighten the task of departmental officials at Tauranga (who must find it hard if not impossible to spare the time at Whakatane to investigate all cases thoroughly) but would also do away with a lot of local dissatisfaction.

After all, people can hardly be blamed for feeling that there should be some place here at Whakatane and someone right in this town to whom they could go in person to state their cases and to whom they could show the evidence. * Whether or not it achieves its immediate object of mobilising all possible backing for the appointment of a housing allocation committee, the conference the H.S.A. proposes to call together, if it can be truly representative of all bodies that have the interests of their fellows at heart, might well be the starting point of some organisation that would make it its duty to keep a constant v/atch on the housing position here, not only to check on the allocations of State houses but to do all in its

power to clear the way for an easing of the accommodation problem generally. That problem has proved itself too big for any one organisation to tackle, and a group of organisations can tackle it successfully only if backed by an absolute avalanche of public opinion.

The H.S.A.’s move might prove to be the boulder that starts the avalanche.