BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11, 1950 HEAD OF THE CLASS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 84, 11 January 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11, 1950 HEAD OF THE CLASS

Mr P. H. B. Lyon, former headmaster of Rugby, in a recent lecture at London, made a very important and very true statement when he gave the opinion that the No. 1 cause of unhappy marriages today is the housing shortage. For that he goes to the head of the class. He claims that building; of new homes should have absolute priority. What applies to England applies here. It is a fact that nothing smashes the dream of “love in a cottage” more completely than a bunch of noisy youngsters underfoot in the same cottage. Families must have space in which to grow. And families are the natural outcome of happy marriages.

But, under present conditions, when parenthood is a definite handicap in most careers because it is impossible for a family man to make the moves he must make to get to the top in most callings, there is little incentive to marry and raise children. i

This is a single man’s country, a single woman’s country, and perhaps even more so a childless couples’ country.' Where two incomes can come into a home that has only two to support,. things should be not so bad,

Mr Lyon condemned the coaxing of married women into employment. Ethically perhaps he war right. But, had he intended his comment to apply to New Zealand, he might have been a bit off the target. The way costs have been here lately it has been practically impossible for one average income to support a family. But his idea is basically sound. It should not be necessary for wives and mothers to work to supplement their husband’s incomes.

He deplores the fact—and fact it is—that a good proportion of present-day youngsters are growing into “cynical little smart Alecks who worship nothing but ruthlessness and craft.” He attributes that to their parents’ arming them with “bucklers of selfishness, suspicion and disbelief” and comments that these parents themselves victims of the world’s cruelty. So they are, and perhaps the worst cruelty in a reasonably prosperous country such as ours is the permitting of young families to be brought up in appallingly inadequate accommoda tion. We have plenty of examples in our own district. It is to be earnestly hoped that the new Government will be active in tackling the housing shortage, not only by the building of more State houses faster, but by the taking off of the 'brakes from private enterprise. It is to be hoped also that the representations from this district to the late Minister of housing for a better system of allocation of State houses locally will be taken up again.

Possibily the new Minister of Housing, Mr Goosman, may be prepared to do more about our claims than send the sort of noncommittal reply we received from his predecessor, who went cut of office still “giving the matter his consideration.” That sort of thing might keep correspondents quiet for a while, but it doesn’t get any results. This district wants and needs its own housing allocation committee. It has made that plain in the right quarters. It must continue to do so until the claim gets the recognition it deserves.