THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1920, Page 4

THE HOUSING PROBLEM.

MILITARY HUTS NOT AVAILABLE. REQUIRED BY DEFENCE DEPARTMENT. A deputation from the New Plymouth Borough Council, while in Wellington on business connected with local affairs last week, approached the Defence authorities in support of representations (already made by letter) with a view of ascertaining the possibility of obtaining some of the camp hutments for use as temporary dwellings to relieve the pressure on housing accommodation. The members of the deputation were: Messrs. Jas. Clarke (Mayor), F. T. Bellringer (General Manager), and they were accompanied by Cr. Hayden, who was also in Wellington on private business. After being introduced to the Minister of Defence by Mr. S. G. Smith, JJJ., the members met General G. S. Richardson, who explained that the Defence Department was not selling the hutments. The Mayor, Mr. Jas. Clarke, speaking to a Daily News representative hut evening, said the position was fully gone into with the various officers of the Department, and it was ascertained that the camp hutments were being used for storing guns, and a large amount of defence equipment. Practically all the buildings, it was stated, will be required for the purpose, and nothing can be done until such time as the new defence scheme is decided upon. General Richardson was sympathetically disposed towards the deputation, and informed them that about twenty or thirty hutments might be spared, but New Plymouth would, of course, only get a proportion, which would be very small, as there were numerous other applications of a similar nature from various parts of the Dominion.

"Little relief," added Mr. Clarke, "can thus be expected from this direction."