MINISTER AS OWNER OF FLATS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 1, 24 September 1937, Page 3

MINISTER AS OWNER OF FLATS

— Press Association.)

Comment by Mr. Polsoit Resented

FAIR-RENTS EXEMPTIONS

(By Telegraph

. WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Fair Rents Act was received hy Governor-General 's Message in the House of Representatives this afternoon, and when it was referred to a Committee of the Whole House the Hon. A. Hamilton asked if the measure was just a continuation of the existing Aet or if there were any amendments in it. Mr Polson: We have been aceustomed to the Minister of Education scolding and bullying members of the Opposition in a loud-voiced, hectoring xnanner, but I am too old a member of this House to be over-awed by this sort of thing. The member for Parnell owned one sort of flats and the Minister of Housing the .other sort. I deliberately said I did not impute any nnworthy motive to anyone and I" object to the Minister making political capital by placing me in this false position. The Minister of Housing and Finance •(Hon. W. Nash) stated there were very few members of the House who would have adopted the contemptible method used by the member for Stratford. "I do happen to own one building in Wellington," he said, "but I have never received a penny from that building and I have never asked any tenant for more rent." He had never voted for any measure in the House for his own advantage aud he was quite willing for any of his private business to bo discussed by the House. He failed to understand why members were allowed to get up aud, by affirming that they did not intend to say certain things, continue to affirm in the opposite direction. The member 'for Stratford had given a totally wrong and unjuet vicw to the people of this country. , Mr Polson: That is not correct. Mr Nash: I have never known anything moro contemptible. I happen to own three flats, and I will vote for this Bill to apply to thcse flats and I will have the same feeling of contempt foi this action. The Chairman of Committees (Mr E. ,T. Howard) said it was not his business | to object to any refercnces so long as they were not personal. "I must say I saw no insult in anything said by the member for Stratford." Mr. Polson: I have to thank you, sir. I had no such intention in my mind. The Fair Rents Bill was read a firkt timo without further discussion. A Difiicult Question. The Minister of Education (Hon. P. Fraser) said the question of flats was a difiicult one. Thero were large numbera of buildings in his electorate which had been convcrted into flats, and they were j governed by tho Act. If it could be 1 shown that the extension was absolutely necessary thero was no logical reason | why it should not be done. He had j com1 across only one instance in his electorate of an exorbitant rent being charged for a flat which had been specially built for that purpose. Mr W. P. Endean said he knew of a case in Auckland where £5500 had been spent on converting a house into flats and the owners had not got a penny ; out of the property since 1930. A man i who invested capital should get some return. "We must not legislate for only one section of the community," Mr Endean said. He knew of plenty of similar cases.to that he mentioned in Auckland, and he suggested the Government should bring in a clause giving property-owners some return for flats, say 3 per cent. That would do. Mr W. J. Polson: Why can we not have an expression of opinion by the Minister of Housing on this mattex? He is the owner of a block of flats of a new type. Why is it that flats are exempted and adapted ones are not? Why should there be diserimination? I am not suggesting anything improper about anyone, but this lends itself to feeling on the part of other people. Hon. P. Fraser objected to Mr Polson 's statement and said if there were a charge to be made against any official of the Government let it be made in a straightforward, manly way, and not by insinuation. He explained that the reason why the Government had limited legislation to converted flats and not to ncw ones wa? that it did not consider the House' was concerned with those able to pay the high rents being aske? for new flats.