HOUSING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 617, 18 March 1921, Page 4

HOUSING.

The great need of the Dominion today is not immigration, or railways, or roads. It is something which affects the rank and file much more definitely and vitally than any of the foi’egoing problems and that great something is the housing question. We as a Dominion were able to organise and mobilise the manhood of our country for war, yet we seem incapable of organising a gigantic building scheme by means of which armies of builders would move about the coun try leaving a trail of newly erected homes behind them. Yet such a thing could be done by a determined Government. At the present time everything is in the hands of the landlord who, no matter what sort of hovel he possesses, is able to extort exorbitant rent and take advantage of the situation. It is human nature to do this, and it will continue to be done as long as the Government is afraid to tackle the question in a bold and comprehensive manner. Of what use, are our health regulations, our sanitary requirements and our prosy talk of morality, when the same Government, which is the author of these, permits people to be ‘herded and exploited in substitutes for homes? The proper housing of the people is the foundation stone of national happiness and contentment. Would there be one-half the strikes and general discontent if the workers could secure homes at reasonable rent? The seeds of revolution ever find, a natural hot bed in squalor and misery and domestic unhappiness. Until this position is remedied it is futile to talk of national content, and a Government of the people, by the people* for the people, to quote Lincoln, should grapple with the situation and provide housing before it brings more overseas population into the country.