COUNTRY WORKERS' HOMES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 625, 6 December 1913, Page 2

COUNTRY WORKERS' HOMES.

POWERS OF COUNTY COUNCIL j DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT ! This week the Counties Amendment j Bill was dealt with in Committee. i In clause 26, giving power uj county i councils to erect or purchase workers j dwellings, the Bill prooosed to fix a j maximum oi three acres as the area j for such dwellings. Mr Ell moved to j increase the area to live ceres, say.'!)?: ; that three acres was rather small as a : maximum for land attached to a workers' dwelling. The county conn- j cils themselves had suggested a j maximum of five acre?. Mr Russell expressed the opinion j that no limit should he t.xod, as the j quality of land varied so widely that j where five acres ef e;cod land would | he sufficient there were cases in which j fifty acres wuold be insufficient. With this view Messrs Buick and E. Newman agreed, arguing that the councils themselves should be allowed t fi fix the area. In the course or su:iie discussion j on the question, it was argued that j the worker in some districts, in adrii- j tion to keeping the family cow, or j perhaps two, needed a horse to reach J his work, and perhaps a pony Cor the j children to attend school. In such j cases even five acres would he of little j service. j The Prime Minister, as an instance of the varied quality of land, pointed j out that the Government were now j cutting up land in South Canterbury | into five-acre sections costing the Go- j vernment nearly .£SO an acre. On these sections the settlers expected to make a living without going out to work at all. Ke thought that in the case of county councils being given power to purchase land compulsorily for workers' homes some limit should be fixed He suggested that the limit so far should be five acres of first-class land, ten acres of second-class land, and twenty of third-class land. The committee) adopted the Premier's suggestion. Mr Russell moveu the inclusion of a new clause, proposing tc. give county councils similar power to that given municipalities relating to the supply or lighting, both to public streets and private consumers. He argued that the councils of some closely-populated counties might desire to start a gas plant for the benefit of the ratepayers. The Minister pointed out that provision was already made allowing county councils to supply electric power, but he thought such power should not be "xtended to gas lighting. Where the population was so dense there would be certainly boroughs within the county with gas supplies sufficient for the purpose. The clause was lost on the voices, and the Bill reported with amendments.