PAEROA HOUSING PROBLEM

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 32, Issue 3292, 23 July 1943, Page 5

PAEROA HOUSING PROBLEM

(To the Editor.) Sir,—With reference to the resolution passed by the Paeroa Borough Council and published in your edition of July 12, in which, it is stated, an approach is to be made to me with a request that Paeroa Borough be given its fair share of the houses covered in the Government’s house construction programme during the coming twelve months, the following statement may be of interest to your readers. At June 30 last the total number of applications for State rental houses, which had not then been satisfied, was 25,870. Of this number 10,903 were in Auckland City and 80'60 in Wellington City, the remainder being spread over 134 cities, towns and villages. Since the entry of the Japanese into the war, which forced New Zealand to prepare itself against a possible invasion of its own territory, practically the whole of the building trades labour, equipment and materials have been diverted from house construction to defence construction, and the great bulk of this labour is still so employed. As a consequence very few houses have been built in the past eighteen months and therefore the means do not exist by which may be solved immediately the housing problems of many returned servicemen and urgent cases among our civilians.

By March 31 last State rental houses had been provided for 573 exservicemen, but at that date there were 619 unsatisfied applications for ex-servicemen, 200 of these being in Auckland and 277 in Wellington. In the meantime this numbei’ has increased'to approximately 800'. As exservicemen receive a 50 pei’ cent, pref'erence of the houses available for allocation these figures mean that 1600 houses will have to be built, a very great majority of them in Auckland and Wellington, before the ex-ser-vicemen’s applications can be met. ’ Recently the Government decided to complete 3600 i houses within the next twelve months. This programme will involve the transfer of 3000 men from defence works. Of the 3600 houses 1200 have been allocated to Auckland, a similar number to Wellingto and the remaining 1200 to all the othex* districts. A comparison of the figures will show, that the allocation to the districts apart from Wellington and Auckland is much more generous than in these two cities.

The number of houses allocated to towns like Paeroa and Te Aroha are on the basis of the existing effective applications, so that equity in treatment is being carried out. Unfortunately this does not mean that ‘the need in Paeroa is being anywhere near fully met, any more than it is being met in other towns and districts but this is due to the unavoidable absorption of the building trades labour in defence construction works, many of which are of the most urgent character. Having said this, I hardly think it necessary to add that I will not fail always to keep the needs of every part of the Thames electorate well before the authorities, and to work to have them satisfied.. —I am, etc.,

JAMES THORN. House of Representatives, 21:7:43.