LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2829, 21 July 1916, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VERDUN Sir,—Our gallant ally, in liar marvellous defence of Verdun, has not only won the admiration of the whole Empire, not to say the world, but has incidentally rendered British strategy inestimable service (vide General Joffre). I propose that we New Zealanders endeavour to show our gratitude and appreciation by naming a town Verdun or New Verdun. It will ilot be the first time that wars have provided us with town names, we having , many such. AVe have several duplicated town names, such as .Palmerston, Havelock, etc., and surely here we have Sie .opportunity tor remedying this muddle in one case at any rate. Palmerston was a groat statesman in his time, but we have almost forgotten him now, many consider Asrniith quite as great a man, but who would nnmo two towns after him? 'L'o the citizens of Palmerston North, who have; I believe, often considered a change, 1 would respectfully offer the above name. It would be a pleasing and euphonious substitute, easy to pronounce, having an English appearance,- calling to mind such an appropriate word as verdure. New Verduu, if adopted, would compare favourably with New Plymouth. New York. New Jersey, etc., and at the present juncture it would be paying the French a well-deserved compliment, which I feel sure would be highly appreciated by that splondid nation. I can foresee many intorestiug possibilities that would be likely to arise. This town would naturally follow with interest" the rebuilding of its namesake, and the State schools in each, town would be linked, as is often done witli English and French schools for facilitating correspondence between pupils for language purposes, etc. There are many other advantages likely to accrue that will occur to any who, like myself, think the idea worth considering—l am, eto., , 11. W. CLAPSON.

RESTRICTION OF RENT ACT

Sir, —The Bill, dealing with Ihc above, as reported by you on July 20, is open to severe criticism. In basing tie standard rents payah)o by tenants after August 4, 1914, upon tho rents that were in force prior /to that date, the Bill would bo certain to inflict unnecessary injustice. The only effect war could have upon rents would bo to lower them. The Bill provides that he Tho charged or paid excessively b'gli. rent prior to tlie date upon which war was declared is entitled to continue, doing sft, but woo to tho landlord who, having Jet premises prior to tho war at an unreasonably lew rent, dares to raise his rent to a reasonable charge in order ,to jet a fair roturn for his capital. It wculd be simply absurd to base tho rents- upon amount charged at any particular dele, irrespective of what return Hich- rents showed upon capita! invested. If 7«striction word necessary it would be quite a simple matter to pass a Hill restricting rents to 7.V per cent, gro-s "upon tho capital value or upon capital, invet-1/ed. Hero, in AVellington City, wo are peculiarly placptl in rcspect to housing accommodation. Not very years ago iw© had a great slump t !>:it sickened the building speculator to the e.wnt that even now, when the demand for houses is so great, he l.as failed to apptar. At one tinio there wero '-Vim 200 lo 300 houses to let,- and tenants could not bo obtained, vrith. the result that in many cases landlords granted leases at. rentals that did not give a lair renirn f<-r capital invested. Tho natural increaso in population has overtaken housing accommodation, enabling those lnnciorfs to revert" back to a reasonable rent at tho termination of their leases. Tiio Bill as reported by you would prevent those landlords from receiving a Tinr return for their capital if their leases ran out during war time, while ethers who had been receiving higher rent :n «uly, 1914, would bo allowed to continue receiving higher rents.

I can cite an actual case. A lady invested her capital in a house returning ,£2 ss. per week rent. At the time of the slump she leased it at a little over half the rent. She had to do it or lose the property to the mortgagee. Tho lease expired whilo the war was on. She then advertised 'the house to lease at .£2 2s. (tho rental value was £1 10s.). There were dozens of applications, and the successful applicant gladly took a lease for .a term of years. I would ask, is it the intention of tho Act that, the lady be penalised for having been so unfortunate as to have entered into tho lease in the first instance? Thanking yon for valuable space,—X am, etc., PUZZLED. Wellington, July 20, 191 G.