The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1919. "SPREADING THE PEOPLE."

Taihape Daily Times, 21 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1919. "SPREADING THE PEOPLE."

(With which is Incorporated The Tai« hape Pout t.nd Walcinilio News).

It has been said that "the housing of the lowest paid wage-earner can j never be satisfactory till the State or i the landlord can supply * sanitary dwelling, with light, sewerage- connec- : tion, bath and air at a rental of one* i .day's pay per week," When the "San* itary Dwellings Bill" was Defore the House, early m December, a condition as just outlined seemed, from the discussion, to be accepted by every member in the chamber, aid there was apparently unanimity of opinion abort the supply of a huge sura of money being applied to bring about ihe institution of such a eorvdition. f!ie Piime Minister thought there was ample provision in law as It stood *o meet all requirements lor housing of the people. ! He said "the responsibility for prevention of overcrowding rests on the municipalities." He quoied at great length old enact.nents in an effort to make it plain ibat the Government 1-ad done all that was possible, and U was the duty of local governments in borough's and counties to see that their workers were sanitarily ami comfortably housed. No one will deny that the Loans to rfettltrs and Workers, and the Workers' Homer, Acts have teen the means of housing v-any hundreds of people, that, they have rendered most excellent service up to a uoint. and that they have been woU and fairly administered, but they have their limitations which end just where it 5s imp'erative that a Sanitary Dwellings Act should commence. The men who could avail themselves of all the Loans to Workers' laws provided were most deserving; fh"ey~we"re the industrious, provident, and very largely the most

, fortunate; men who had steady cm- . ployment and were not overloaded wi<-h i large families to prevent them aceu- ] muiating sufficier.; money to enable ! them to borrow. Enough Is not lent to I build a home; there is provision in ; the regulations for a fair margin of I security, and it is this margin that reni ders the Workers' Loan Act inacccs- | siblo to by far the largest number of j workers, and it is this greater volume ! of humanity that is at the root of the j housing problem. All that need tje | done in connection with those who are j able tc make use of the loan laws is ! to see- that they do not contribute to slum-making, and instead of Mr." Mas- | sey dwelling upon what the law pro- ! vided for such men, he should, have j frankly discussed the situation of those j many thousands who can only look • with. Icngfns" eye's - on what they have to regard by farce of circumstances PS j "sour grapes." Sympathy is wasted ! on men who can afford to borrow from j the> Government and will not; whatever i sympathy Govenment and Parliament ; have to spare is" wanted for the great i army who have no proposition to make j to the State Lending Department that I its regulations enable them to touch !or even look at Mr. Massey is noted | for" his precept, but his practice is exj ecrably bad. He told the House that i he thought the Government should not stop at what it had already accomplished; he hoped the country and me I House would rise to the occasion; it | was the duty of the Government to I j find cheap money for the worker, the { municipality and the County Council, I and to all local bodies who desire to . do their duty to workers. What aggra- : vating twaddle all this is; it is the : Government that should do its duty, we have no misgiving about what the ; country will 6*o; the masses do not j live, like sardines, in hovels, insanit- | ary shelters, and veritable disease dens I from choice. The country wants the , Government to do its duty in this housing of the people; Government holds and controls the purse, the country handed it to 7 them as stewards, anc , how are they spending the money

i Not in housing rhe people; instead of | building up a large, healthy, industrial | population they are spending it in raising up a hugely dangerous military system which has all to be pulled down and will be pulled down even if no other than Bolsheviks will consent to | do it. If Mr. Massey and his friends have not come to a realisation of the temper of the constituencies there is a rude awakening in store for them, anr we would advise them to move beyond the limits of their own little coterie and learn something. Wfi«n speaking on the "Sanitary Dwellings Bill" the, Prime Minister was evidently launching an electioneering harangue; he admitted that his Government had already done a" good deal in spreading our population, "but, he said, "we should do a great deal more." In Taihape, in

fact throughout the counties of Rangitikei, Oroua and Waimarffib we have ample scope for observing how Mr. Massey's Government has spread the people over the country; it is a very "patchy take," as the farmer would say, a seed or two every few miles. 1 We state without hesitation that the policy of the Government is distinctly one of centralisation whether they intend it as Such or not, but they are equally culpable whether their fault be design or ignorance. By the aggregation of land settlement is so far on the retrograde path that schools in country districts have to close for want of children. Landowners left in such uTstricts come to live in town so as to get schooling for their children. Men who have made money on land are paying huge sums of money in buyiug up residences in Taihape, therby accentuating the housing difficulty, not one of them is building. But this is bow Mr. Massey's Government Js spreading the people; he talks all round the key to. the situation, but he takes particular care not to touch it; the sins of the Government he meanly loads upon local bodies. Referring to communications as a means of spreading the population, he said much more should be done with tram services and suburban train services. No doubt the corners 'of the pyramids of insanitary perdition in cities might be rubbed of? a Tittle by extended tram systems ar.i a saner use of suburban train services, but the counties experience is that the Government will do absolutely nothing that does' not pay, whether it "be public service communication, train or mail systems, everything must be a paying proposition from the jump. This territory is worse served by postal communication than it was a decade age J and this year there is still Cur met aiaastrous curtailment The enormous production of this district has made it essential in producers' bett interests that communication with the world's markets should be as perfect as possible, but the Government goes on reducing these communications year after yoar, and the result is that the few settlers who have net come to live in town, spend s very great deal of their time and their money in coming to get their mails and to transact that business that might very well be done by the post office -if facilities were available. This is another of the" methods of the Government for spreading the people. Even working men state deliberately that they will not be cut off from all civilisation in=l?Te country as long as there is work in i town. Hence we have crowded towns; families living two and three in a house not fit for ODe; people piled up in rooms to a dangerous and positively criminal degree, and yet Mr. Massey modestly admits that the Government | has done much, and that it should go , on doing more to spread the people on • the country. Settlers in this territory | can only regard such statements as j cruel jokes, for they are so obviously opposed to fact. If the Government are in earnest "and really think they are spreading people over the country, heaven help the country. To spread people over the country it is imperative new managers of public services should be appointed; there must be some suspicion of inducement in the nature of communication with the outer world or intelligent men won't go to work on the land, and if people are to be sanitarily housed the Government must either build houses cr furnish money so that the lowest part worker can pay his rent with one day's wages, but it is all a waste of words, Mr. Massey intends to do nothing of the kind.