RURAL HOUSING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 141, 15 May 1940, Page 5

RURAL HOUSING.

COUNTY COUNCIL’S SUPPORT. Some details of the Rural Housing Act were explained to members of the Kairanga County Council yesterday by Mr T. E. Mitchell, manager of the State Advances Corporation, Wellington. In welcoming Mr Mitchell the chairman (Mr W. It. said that the council had l>eon marking time in connection with the scheme. It did not know much about it and was looking to Mr Mitchell to give it a lead. Mr Mitchell said that briefly the Act provided that local bodies could borrow money at three per cent, from the State Advances Corporation and lend it to farmers for building or_for improvement to dwellings. There had been an undoubted demand for the scheme, as he bad found from bis visit to local bodies in the North Island. The demand was particularly Jjeen for dwellings for married farm workers. He had been round the main counties in the North Island and they had mostly been sympathetic to the scheme a.nd were prepared to give it support. In the Manawatu district there was not a great demand for the scheme so far, although local bodies were not unsympathetic. Loan applications in sight totalled £2oo 000. The State Advances Corporation desired to simplify procedure as much n.s possible and was prepared to do anything it could to heb> the local bodies. The Government held the view 'that the improvement in housing conditions in rural areas would go a long way to help in increasing production. He asked the council to signify its preparedness to meet any demand for the scheme if it arose. The council subsequently decided that it would co-operate with the State Advances Corporation in the scheme. It was resolved that the amount of the loan to he applied for be considered at the annual meeting of the council. -