HOUSE RENTS IN WELLINGTON.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2121, 2 July 1907, Page 1

HOUSE RENTS IN WELLINGTON.

At tlio meeting' of ! the ' Wellington Benevolent Trustees on June 19th (says- the' l Post), the chairman", (the llcv. W. A. Evans), reported that he -had visited the house of a woman who is in receipt of aid from the trustees. The house in which this unfortunate woman is living—one of three rooms with a leaii-to—is allcgedto be a damp, unhealthy place, for which she paid 13s per week rent. Mr. G. London said lie was of opinion that the whole question of housing the poor should be carefully gone into by the trustees. Obviously tho matter was ono which required attention. The chairman endorsed this (statement, and said he would bo glad to see a committee set up to inquire into tho practicability and advisability of erecting houses in which, say, widows and other people not likely to become independent of tho trustees for some time could bo domiciled. Such a step would ensure that those who were in receipt of charitable aid would bo living under the best conditions possible. It was not his idea that these homes should be set. apart as benevolent homes, with the distinguishing brand of charity on them, but that they should bo built in various parts of the city, and in no way differentiated from other houses in the locality. He moved,—“That a committee, ■ consisting of Messrs. D. Robertson, J. Wakeliam, G. London, and himself, be" appointed to bring down a report on the quetion within four weeks.” Tile motion was seconded by Mr. London, who expressed the belief that the trustees could do something on the lines indicated by tho chairman. There was no hiding the fact that people were not as decently housed as they ought to be. The motion was carried. Ajiropos of this question of houso rent, tho trustees for some time past have been in the habit of limiting payments for rent to 5s per week. The people who get this aid rarely pay less than 11s per week for their rent. One woman who came before the trustees yesterday is living in a house for which she pays 14s per week, yet her husband is totally unfitted to work, her eldest boy is paralysed, another child is 2J years of age, and there is a third a"ed 15 months. In view of the circumstances the trustees decided to raise the weekly grant for rent to 10s per week until the woman’s financial condition improves.