FARM HOUSING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20053, 27 September 1939, Page 11

FARM HOUSING

LOANS BY LOCAL BODIES NEW PRINCIPLE IN BILL OPPOSITION APPROVAL DEBATE IN THE HOUSE ! (Per Press Association,) WELLINGTON, this day. In moving the second reading of the Rural Housing Bill in the House of Representatives yesterday, the Minister of Housing, the Hon. IT. T. 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 on farms. Where the State was the sole mortgagee, said the Minister, it had granted money to extend 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 money could not be advanced, no matter how badly accommodation was needed. He considered that if farm cottages were provided on 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 farmers themselves or for their employees. The loans would be repaid by way of rates or in regular payments. The rate of interest would be cheap, say 4,1 per cent, with sufficient added of a sinking fund to pay off the whole of the loan in 25 years. Prompt Operation Urged

The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, said that in providing for rural homes the Government was making an effort to grapple with an important problem, and he urged the Minister to waste no time ir. putting the provisions of the measure into operation once it became law. Tomes could not be erected merely by the passing of the bill, he said. 1: was 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 if the scheme were to be fully successful. Mr. W. .1. Broadf'oot (Nat., Waitomo) asked the Minister to state the rate of interest that would be charged to local bodies and those who availed themselves of acquiring homes under the legislation. He also asked if the Fair Rents Act would apply to these homes. .

Mr. Armstrong: The Fair Rents Act will not apply at all. It applies only to houses which were built and were rental houses at the time the measure was passed.