THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Matamata Record, Volume III, Issue 122, 6 March 1919, Page 1

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Municipal Building Urged.

In writing on the housing problem tho Waipa “ Post ” states : , l> Tho great economic advantages of a State housing scheme in this country have boon proved in tho system of Workers’ Dwellings, and it may be hoped that with tho repatriation proposals shortly jto have effect, the' system of (State housing will not bo overlooked. If, when demobilisation begins in earnest, ex-service men are to be attracted to the land, or to tho provincial towns, building must proceed rapidly, and it is the State, and the State only, that can provide the organisation whereby this can be done on an adequate scale. State housing has passed beyond tho experimental stage; it has proved one of the very foundations on which the conditions of tho future must be built. The economic advantages which it brings are apparent in every locality where trial has been made, but the indirect value of a steady, instead of a roving community, the inevitable consequence of State housing, is the more worthy consideration. Security of tenure —the knowledge of ownership —is an inspiration to better things, giving to the tenant-occupier the impulse and the desire to engage in the settlement of wider questions of public concern, and assuring for the community those qualities in the individual which make for good citizenship. Benefits exist everywhere in this system of State housing. And it is well, therefore, that the Administration in Wellington has carried the system beyond tho experimental stage, so that -to-day it can be , wisely brought into union with 1 the proposals'to secure ex-service men a home in surroundings where they best like to be on their return from the exile of war.

It has been amply proved that tho old-time tenant system has great defects. It is not of any real worth to a private investor, or else the demand for houses would not now so greatly exceed the supply. With things as they are rents have advanced to an abnormal level. Only a vigorous policy of home building by the State can cause rents to gravitate towards an economic level.. For the casual man in industry casual tenancy may be all very well, but one of the goals of future ambition must be to assuro that the bulk of tho workpeople will seek some permanency in life. Give them a homo of their own and there will be some assurance that this goal will be reached. State initiative is needed.

Proposals for meeting the housing problems should not lie independent of local authorities, public societies and voluntary service, but, organising all three factors into union, provide for readiness to take immediate action throughout the Dominion. On the local authorities a good deal of the responsibility may fall, and it would be well to see a general application of the provisions contained in the Municipal Corporations Act, whereby councils .nay let to a worker endowment lands (other than recreation reserves and lands held in trust) and may itself erect a dwelling or advance the money to the worker to do so. More than this, a council, without an authority poll, may raise a loan, acquire land, and erect workers’ dwellings for any number of approved applicants. And, in the case of a local authority, the wage-earning restriction observed by the Workers’ Dwelff-.gs’ Board does not apply. Dwellings erected by the local body may be leased in the usual manner or sold to the tenant-occupier on exactly the same terms undor which the foesimple of the workers’ dwellings is obtained.

Thore is boro a policy for the incoming borough council at Te Awamutu. We are suffering today lrom a famine of houses, and whilst some . relief is expoctod from tho State, with possibly slight activity by private investors, the real solution of tho difficulty appears to rest with the local body in association with the State. (Jould not the council-to-be float a substantial loan through the State Advances department, calling up the money in instal-

monts as the approved applicants come forward. Of one thing we may be certain, that without an enterprising council and a forward policy of home building this town will suffer tho loss of many opportunities which the future contains. Security of tenure, permanency of interest in industry and in the town will be one of the greatest factors in the solidity of the place. Facilities for improvement of position by means of home security would, compared with pre-war conditions, make a man think twice before he followed the drift of tho metropolis. And, it would give to the town tho population it should rightly have, and which it can retain. Housing, one of the greatest local problems of the moment, is the great pillar on which reposes the future of Te Awamutu.”