The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1919. THE WORST HOUSED PEOPLE.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 July 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1919. THE WORST HOUSED PEOPLE.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

The statement circulated by the workers’ Dwellings Branch of the Labour Department in connection with the house shortage problem constitutes an excellently informative docuinent‘, as well as,being a highly appreciated announcement of the Department-_’s future policy and intentions. There is only one short passage that people suffering from house famine in Taihape, can take any exception to, and that is the belief expressed that house-building should be pushed forward in such places as Wellington where the greatest demand exists_ The wordsZ“such places as Wellington,” led us to infer that other large cities were ili'the wl'iter’s mind, but after consulting statistics, and results’, of census—taking, we are satisfied that seine other places were referred to, in which there is a much greater dearth of houss to population than there is in either Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin. Auckland is the city in which house shortage is more acute than in any of the others; but in Tailmpe there. are more people to each house than in Auckland, and when the large number of huge structures in the city are taken into consideration, —hotels, boardinghouses, many-room-‘ed dWellings——Of which there is no like in Taihape, this town easily becomes the hardest pressed borough in the Dominion for housing accommodation. The population of Wellington is 73,305 and there are 15,450 houses, including all huge buildings used as dwellings. This works out’ at about 4 souls to each house, big ami 1.*.t1-2. Wh'."e IIT. Taihape the population is now 2000 and the number of houses, big and little is 400, making ‘5 souls to each house, and when it is considered that the percentage of small houses is over-whelniiiig, and that there are no really large houses at all, the airmence between Wellington and Taihupe ‘is greatly to Taihape’s disadvantage-. Next to Taihape, \ Auckland people seem to be the worst housed, the percentage being about the same as that at Taihape, but it has the advantage of 3. much greater number of large dwellings, such as hotels, and board‘inghouses Dunedin people are inadequately housed, Worse than Wellington peeple, in fact. In Dunedin there are people to each house. In Christ.chureh their are 41-3 souls to crowd into each house. Then coming to our own neighbourhood, Marten has 4;; ‘Wanganui 42-3, and Palmerston North But when it is considered that there are no large houses in Tai-; hapc excepting the two hotels, and‘ they are by no means large in eer:.— parison with city hotels. Taihupe stands out as the worst housed com. munity in New Zealand. The fact that it is a rapidly progressing centre gives the figuresa much more serious aspect When the allotment of workers’ dwellings, is being made by the Buard 5'9 is 1101303 this aspect of. the nur_nl;.:r of people per house will be given the consideration we think it strongly merits. We cannot help being of the opinion that it is a mistake to em dourage DOOPIc to herd together in °“'s°S- 113 is beyond any question that people, invariably married people, are almost daily leaving Taihape, or refuS_int‘=’ to accept work and settle in TalhaDe._ This must have some dctri-. mental influence on primary ,produc_ flon; those who leave, and those who dePal‘t Eiffel‘ trying for weeks to get a house, simply flock to the city, where they find it easier to get housing accommodation than in Taihape. We are not urging Taihape’s case so much as that of national production, and we are sure the Board will see how disastrous to the country it may become to render the condition we draw attention to more acute than it: is at present. Our newspaper adver-1 tising department is instructed , to; advise houselcss people that adver-l tising cannot procure houses that‘

have no existence, and so peol_n_l9 drift‘

away from where increased production urgently needs them to swell the ranks of the consumers in the cities. Every man driven from Taihepe is sent from producing to consuming and We contend that to render the housing problem so much more acute in the country than it is in the city is a venal breach of duty to our country, inasmuch as: it adds to the con« suming population at the expense and decrease of the producing population. We trust the Board who consider applications for Workers’ homes Will not minimise the importance of encouraging people, if. not to leave cities and go to the country, at least to rema.i‘n in the producing areas while they are there. .