THE BUILDING PROBLEM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4422, 2 June 1922, Page 1

THE BUILDING PROBLEM.

. AND THE AMUSEMENT CRAZE.

When Cecil Rhodes, looked! down from- the M.atoppo Hills and saw the fair expanse of Rhodesia stretching before him, he said to a .companion.: “Do you know what I see there ? Homes—more homes'.” In my business (says a writer in “New Zealand Business and Industries”) I come in contact with thousands pf young people who wish to get married and cannot get Houses ; or who are parried, .and are living in furnished rooms, furnished houses; half-houses, or tiny flats. This is most undesirable both for the individuals and for the State. The best type of family does not develop unless it possesses i,t’s own home, A couple in furnished rooms or a halfhouse never lead a proper home life. The wife has no household duties to occupy her. Neither husband nor wife has the least pride or pleasure in their abode. Their only desire 's to be out-of it, and they become members of the amusement-seeking, childless class which is .a danger to the community. The Government has cut down its housing plans because of expense. Unless something can be done it wi’l become more and more difficult for the young folk to marry, or if they marry to. have homes of their own. At the same time there are large numbers of empty houses. Take up any newspaper you like and you will see long lists of houses for sale. In half the cases cash down is demanded. It is 'offered as a kind of privilege if a third of the price'is left bn mortgage. Even if a young couple seek the aid of a building society it is very rare for the society to advance more than two-thirds of the value—not of the price—of the house. Tf the Government guaranteed building societies against loss s'o that they could advance up to ■ nine-tentus of the value of a house, we should largely solve the problem of the homeless couples of tp-day. When the young man who has saved fifty or a hundred pounds pays it down as a deposit on a house and get 'his own home, you have given him an object to work for, a stake in the country. He works and saves as never before. The Government takes great financial responsibility in guaranteeing foreign credits? - It would take very little if by the means I have indicated it guaranteed homes for ov.r young couples.