Housing and Costs

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 93, 6 May 1937, Page 7

Housing and Costs

"RATEPAYER."

(To the Editor.) Sir, — I am afraid Mr Barley and I are looking at the same problem from different angles. He aeems to view It from a political aspect 'and X from a purely financial standpoint as politics do not enter into my owa business dealings. (When he mentioned the loss by him of six acres in the borough of Hastings, which he now attributes to an error of judgment, I could not, and cannot now see, that if he had proceeded on the lines advocated by me, that anything short of one of those extreme socialisUe Governments which suddenly decides that certain inaividuals are holdang too much valuable land for their own requirements and confiscates it, c.ould have deprived him of this property. X must assume that he held it to make a home for himaelf, otherwise he would only be a speculator and I have no sympathy for him if such were the case. If he had made a home for himself as I have done he would surely see that his cash requirements were aniple before entering anto the obligation; or in other words, he would not have started cutting his six-acre coat before he had measured up his cloth. Effort and sacrifice has enabled me to save su£S.cient cash to buy articles md property as X could afford them, and not simply as equity in them, so that X am not beholden to any Governxuent or financial institution, and can therefore say that I have workeff on the principle of "what we have we hold. Although your correspondent does not relish any slogan he evidently thinks the Government will adopt it in future as he states: "I am convinced ' that the same humane power that is providing the amenities will also supply the wherewithal to secure and hold those comforts. " In Proverbs it is wriften: "If tbou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is 6mall," and being a Christihn like your correspondent, I can honestly say that I also suffered reverses during adverse times the same as other workers. Furthermore, I have done everything he surmises I may not have done except share my home with some other family, but I take it ' the slogan he has suggested for me — viz., "What I have I share" would not' apply to the home or anything in it and refers more to cash in the pocket the bank. Well, I j-jet can't help thinking that if I had known he held* this slogan when ho held tfie six-acre bloek 1 might have been able to porsuade him to share a modest one-sixth of an acre with me and I could then have afforded more amenities in the home. Thanking you for the space.— ymirc

Hastings, May 4.