PARLIAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 14

PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FINANCE FOR RURAL HOUSING [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 26. The House of Representatives sat at 2.30 p.m. Mr Carr, in an urgent question of the Acting Prime Minister, asked if his attention had been drawn to several advertisements in tho newspapers calling for female clerks or males who were ineligible for military service, adding that the effect of such advertisements showed a.tendency in tho direction of carrying on essential services on the home front during the war by those who were physically unfit. He asked whether the Minister would endeavour to make the matter one of Government policy lest essential home production should.suffer as,a result. Mr Fraser replied that his attention had not previously been drawn to the matter, but he assured Mr Carr that it would receive tho Government’s consideration. RURAL HOUSING. Moving, the second reading of the Rural Housing Bill, the Minister of Housing, Mr Armstrong, . said the Bill embodied a new idea. There was already under the Act, he said, power to provide better, housing facilities for farming communities, but one of the difficulties which stood in the way was mortgages.onifarms. Where the State w,as the sole mortgagee, said the Minister, it had granted money to extendi and' improve farm housing, but the State , was able-to lend money only where it held. priority, and, except where the mortgagee granted that priority, the monev could not be advanced, no matter now badly accommodation was needed. He considered that if farm cottages we?e provided on 1 economic holdings it would secure to the farmers more efficient labour than in the past, because it would provide more inducement for the farm worker to settle down on the property. The Bill would allow county councils and other local bodies to borrow from the State Advances Department and lend to farmers’at low rates of interest, either for dwellings for the farmers themselves or for their employees. ■ He suggested that local bodies might be. able to assist by absorbing the labour of seasonal farm workers in off seasons, and said the loans would he repaid by way of. rates or in regular payments. The rate of interest would be cheap, say, 4J fier cent., with sufficient added of sinking fund to .pay off the whole of the loan in 25 years. There was power under the Bill to make regulations to meet any, exigencies as they arose. Mr Hamilton said that in providing finance for rural homes the Government was making an effort to grapple with an important problem, and he urged the-Minister to, waste no time in putting the provisions of the measure ‘into: operation once it became law. Homes could not be erected merely by the passing: of a Bill.' It was the administration that mattered, and county councils should be encouraged to take full advantage of the law and the State Advances Department, which was to advance the money to county councils, should be required to accelerate its procedure. The second reading debate, was adjourned for the introduction of the Customs resolutions and the war finance measure (repotted elsewhere). The Minister of Lands, Mr Langstone, briefly explained the Land Laws Amendment Bill, which is a miscellaneous measure containing several clauses slightly affecting Crown tenants, etc. The Bill was read a first time and referred to the Lands Committee, and the House rose at 10.20 p.m.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ■ The Legislative Council met at 2.30 p,m. ' • . The Native Purposes Bill was read a 'first time and also a second time pro forma, and referred to the Native Affairs Committee. . The Local Legislation Bill, the Wages Protection and Contracts Liens Bill and the Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks Amendment Bill were read a first time. The Waikato Airport Bill and the Lower Glutha River Improvement Amendment Bill were read a first time and, referred to the Local Bills Committee. The Otago Presbyterian Church Board of Property Amendment Bill was read a second time. The Small Farms Amendment Bill, the Agricultural Emergency Regulations Confirmation Bill, the Nurses and Midwives Registration Amendment Bill, and the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill were each read a second time, put through the committee stages, and passed. .... The only measure debated was the Small Farms Amendment Bill, members expressing their opinions regarding the merits of the freehold or the leasehold tenure. The Council adjourned at 4.55 p.m.