GOOD INVESTMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 89, 12 October 1944, Page 5

GOOD INVESTMENT

BUILDING SOCIETIES

PLACE IN RECONSTRUCTION

. "Wellington, I regret to say, has only 4000 members of building societies out of a total in New Zealand of nearly 60,000, one Auckland society having 20,000 members and one 'in Southland 15,000," said the Mayor (Mr. Appleton) a t the opening of the conference of New Zealand Building Societies yesterday. "While it is not the place of a mayor to act as financial adviser to the community, I would take this opportunity of recommending young men who aim to build their own homes to get into a building society as soon as the opportunity otters. They have nothing to lose and all to gain. As many of us know to our cost, there are few types of investment of which the Jsame can be said. "The example of the Mother Country is in itself a guarantee of the standing of the building society movement. There, the assets total £773,000,000, and advance of nearly £700,000,000 on 1913, while in the same period the total advanced on loan rose from £9,000,000. to more than £140,000,000. New Zealand, on the other hand, had nearly £3,000,000 advanced on loan in 1913 and more than £10,000,000 in 1940. I:hbpe the day is not far distant when you, too, can reckon your increase in membership, assets, and advances as tenfold and more." While it was recognised that the war was by no means over, particularly in this part of the world, all had an anxious eye upon the problems of post-war construction, said Mr. Appleton. Provided they were not hampered in their efforts, building societies could make as valuable a contribution as any private or State organisation to the provision of homes for ownership. They had the experience, an essential prerequisite, the finance, and the confidence of the general body of the people. "While ■we move towards the principle and practice of co-operative endeavour, which is infinitely preferable to the extremes either of private enterprise or of State control, your system has already, both^here and in the United Kingdom, demonstrated the practical benefits of co-operative* enterprise," he continued. A SHARE IN MATERIALS. "War legislation has restricted your endeavours, and it was only right that when labour and materials were urgently required for defence purposes, that this should be so, but now I feel we are all impatient for, some lifting of restrictions that the work of reconstruction may be set in train in a practical way—not just a blueprint for action at some later and indefinite date. If more than 4000 men can now be engaged on building State homes for rental—and that many men would be using, a great quantity of building rnaterials-rthen adequate labour, materials, and. legislative facilities should be provided for co-operative enterprise such as your own to build homes for ownership at the prospective owner's own price, to their own design, and financed by their aggregate savings. "It would be a sorry day for the spirit of independence and self-help in this country if a situation were allowed to develop where the State alone became the universal provider of homes. The State housing scheme was an excellent means of helping to bridge, the gap between supply and demand, and I am sure it will continue to be so, but, as I said before, it must not be the giant in the field, with private house building getting only the crumbs that drop from the mammoth table of labour and materials. "Early this year we had an assurance from the Minister of Works (Mr. Semple) that private enterprise would share equally in available labour and materials for building. If that promise is to become fully effective, then there must be no restrictions remaining which would prevent the private builder from reaping the benefit of it."