STATE HOUSES.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 114, 31 May 1937, Page 6

STATE HOUSES.

Announcement of the rentals of the houses now in course of ereetion by the State will bring cold comfort to many of those who hoped to oceupy them, says the Auckland Star. They will be let, there will be scores of applications for every house built, but tbey are too dear for the men who should be catered for. In flxing tbe basic wage the Government assuaaed an average family of three children. The population statistics show that this number has no relation to the facts, bnt the basic wage conditions laid down by the State itself should be the basis of its housing scheme. A man on the basic wage with a family of three, requires a six-roomed house, the rental of which is a minimum of £1 11/-. On the top of this transport services from Orakei will be fairly costly. The houses are therefore beyond tbe reach of the class for whocn they are most urgently needed. It has been a dictum of the Labour Party for many years that a day's pay should pay a week's xent. On that basis the renter should receive £7 15/- a wedk. How many of them will approximate that figure ? The houses have been built on low-priced land, every effort has been made to keep their cost down by mass production and other methods, yet they are beyond the most deserving cases. The experiment seecns to indicate that there is little advantage to be obtained by State eonstruction, and that the scheme is out of balance, being df no real assistance to those who - most requixe, iJU *