RESTRICTION OF RENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 18

RESTRICTION OF RENT

IAW TO CONTINUE ANOTHER YEAR FIRST GOVERNMENT BILL HE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) W.ELLINGTON, Tuesday. The first Government measure of the sess.on was passed this afternoon in the House of Representatives, when the Rent Restriction Continuance Bill (No. 2) was put through all its stages and sent on to the Legislative Council, which will have to pass it by midnight tomorrow. Speaking to the Bill, the Minister of Labour, the Hon. W. A. Veitch, who was in charge of it, said that it offered no new features, being merely a continuance of last year’s measure for another year. The records of the Labour Department showed clearly that unemployment and other economic disabilities meant that the removal of the restrictions would impose difficulties that could not be borne at the present time. The centres were affected by conditions, and Wellington most. The position was not so acute in Christchurch. The provincial towns felt the pinch because of the slump. Messrs. P. Fraser (Wellington Cen tral), W. E. Parry (Auckland Central). R. McKeen (Wellington South), and C. H. Chapman (Wellington North) all expressed gratification at the Government’s introducing the legislation again. The Hon. W. Downie Stewart (Dunedin West) pointed out an anomaly in that often people of small means who had invested their money were unable to get an adequate return because of the restrictions. The Minister in reply pointed out that the rentals in appeal cases were based on capital value. The Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, said that in principle of such legislat ; on was wrong, and had been brought about bv well-known economic causes. When these were removed, restriction also should be removed.