THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 20 March 1919, Page 3

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

"If you were a first-class angel with wings, and flew into ray office and asked me to let you a five-roomed house in a- nice locality within the penny section I couldn't do it," was the emphatic way in which a Queen Street house-agent replied to a lady seeker for an empty house of the description indicated. Wasn't that a rude way in which to reply to a lady V —you ask. Well, perhaps it was. But you must remember that this agent, in common with most other agents, had been replying to similar applications all day and all the day before, and for many days before that. So his temper had grown a bit shor£, as I daresay yours or mine would have been had we been in the agent's place From whai I know myself I am quite sure that if 50 five-roomed houses in nice localities in Auckland, within the penny section, were advertised to be let to-day they would all be taken to-morrow. And the position grows worse with the arrival of every troopship bringing returned soldiers. The time will come I expect when some of us will have to live \n tents —or " dug-outs." Whst are the builders waiting for ? The post of building materials is not likely to grow appreciably less for a very long time to come. So why not " do it now ?"