HOUSES FOR SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 191, 8 May 1919, Page 6

HOUSES FOR SOLDIERS

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. The lack of houses in Wellington is causing concern to the. Housing Committee of the Wellington Repatriation Board. Their experience has made it quite clear' to them that there are not enough houses in the city to accommodate the people who want to livo here. There is a 6cheme by which returned soldiers ean get generous assistance for tho purpose of buying a house already built, but the. sale and purchase of these houses is- tending to accentuate rather than to diminish the housing shortage. Consequently the committee has come to the conclusion that there can be r.o solution of the problem unless a considerable number of new bouses .are built, and they suggest that the new houses should be built by the Government for soldiers. Members of the committee waited on the chairman of the Repatriation Board (the Hon, W. H. Herries) yesterday to put some of their views before him, and to ask him to bring the niatw ter before the Government. The question will have to come before Cabinet, as have most questions dealing'with repatriation. The board has no power ,to acquire land or to erect buildings without the authority of the Government as a whole. The chief difficulty in the way of the adoption of the scheme by tha Government is that 'of scarcity ot labcur. There aro not enough ' building trade workers in the city at present la carry through a plan ench as that proposed.