HIGH RENTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3093, 25 May 1917, Page 4

HIGH RENTS

FOR COTTAGES NEAR THE CAMPS.

The Government has been approached again regardins the very high rents charged lor cottages in the neighbourhood of the camps at Feathewton and Trentham. Action would no doubt have been taken lons ago i{ the rent restriction provisions of the War Legislation x\ct of last eession were applicable to these cases, but that act was framed with the idea of preventing increases of existing rents, rather than the levying in some localities of "too high rents. The suggestion made to the Government was 'that the matter should I* dealt with by War Regulation, but a, special report was aeked for on. the subject.- This report is, probably in preparation now, if it is not already completed. It has not yet'reached, the Minister who will deal with the matter. ' ■

Tho position was worae'at Featherston when tho o.irap was first established there, but the Salvation Army hostel, which has beon erected in the town of Featharston, has made provision for the wives of men who cannot afford to pay the high rents demanded. At Trentbam there is no such institution, and the soldier who wishes to have his wife near the camp while he is in training has to pay dearly for .the privilege. The bnrden falls almost wholly on the soldiers from, other districts, for the men who have homes in Wollinuton do not break them up. The Tents are very high, evea judged by Wellington standards; and men from other towns where the demand for houses does not as a rule exceed the supply, allege that they are extortionate. For instance, it is stated that adjacent to the camp at Trentham a man can pay a pound a week, more, rather than less, for a two-roomed "leanto" with ten pounds worth of furniture in it, and for this he will get a most inse&ure tenure. It ie stated that some men have had their families turned out of a house shortly before the, date for. their departure for the front—at the time when they would nafhrally be most anxious to have their families near them —for no other reason than that the landlord had discovered another soldier just entering camp who would take the house for a period. It may be said that the landlords have gone into a very risky speculation in putting .up houses-near the camps which can never pay after the camps are closed, and that in the meantime they ii)ust eet such rents as will return to them not only interest, but 'capital. This is a ground for tta charging of rents higher than would ho justifiable in permanent settlements, but it is claimed that the rente are too high even after making allowance for all contingencies. Tho camps have befn riinjiinpr for n lone time now. and they will be continued as demobilisation '"bases Ion? nfter the war is over. After the war they mav \>p continued as trainingcentres for the Territorial Force