The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1909. DEAR RENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2495, 7 May 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1909. DEAR RENTS.

- Mr T. E. Taylor, M.P. for Christchurch North has sent a letter—-publish-ed iii this issue—to the .Premier, which touches on a phase of economics that needs very careful 'i consideration. It lias long been recognised that the rent question is the most perplexing feature that has to' be confronted when one discusses the position of tlie working classes. Under our system of arbitration awards' wages have steadily risen during the past fifteen years, but it is certainly a moot point whether the worker is really any better off than he was under the lower wage that ruled when employers had freedom to contract in labor according to the ordinary laws of supply and demand. Tlie cost of living has increased so greatly that the head of a family cannot obtain any greater amount of comfort fo.r turns oil

and those dependent upon him than he eoukl' before . arbitration awards raised his income. A good deal of .this added cost results from the.rise in tho price of food and other necessary articles of consumption, but rent, which has also risen to an alarming degree, is more than ever a depressing factor to the housewife who lias to watch with-nig-gardly care the outgoing of every penny. . Even in Gisborne the laborer who earns, say, £2 10s per week—and very many earn no more—has to pay fully twelve shillings and sixpence for the right to house his family in a hovel whilst ho ' must pay ..several shillings more if he desires a really comfortable home in which his wife and children can,be brought up under reasonably healthy conditions. In larger cities the position is worse for there the congestion of population brings about even higher rental values. The problem has been tackled by many Governments, but so far only the most partial success has been achieved. In the first place it is not easy, even for a public department, which is erecting a number of house* simultaneously, to save very much on the ordinary market price for .building, and the Government cannot buy the land upon which the houses are placed any cheaper than an ordinary speculator. Thus the State workers’ home cannot be sold or rented appreciably cheaper than one obtainable in the open market. Where the Government can offer an advantage to a laborer desirous of obtaining a liome for himself is by charging him one or two per cent, less interest than the average land agent exacts, but this is counteracted bv tho fact that tho Stqte is compelled bv the regulations it works under to demand greater security in the way of deposit before lending. Another objection to the system of establishing workers’ homes by State assistance is the fact that they are often of unattractive design and are all built alike. The result is that the locality where these homes are situated is in the public mind directly labelled as a village for. workers in poor circumstances, and thc_ old, perennial curse of class prejudice is at once raised. Therefore the a.voiaue worker who is thrifty enough to buy a home at all passes by the house that the Government lias provided for ]dm and seeks one nr a situation tn.it suits his special tastes even though it cost him a trifle more. Some of these objections to the workers’ home system have in recent years been obviated, and in certain parts of the Dominion the idea lias been carried to a successful termination. But even in such places it mn-.t be recognised, as Air. lay.or points out in the letter referred to, that the benefits, are by no means as great as those who devised the scheme antieijmted. It was thought that the action of the Government or municipal authorities would tend to lower rents all round, but this lias not been the case. All that lias happened has been that a few workers have been provided with comfortable and convenient homes at a low rental. They form such a small proportion of the total that the property market is not all affected. Air. Taylor’s suggestion is that the Government should make arrangements to house the workers along the route of the railway lines, some miles from town, where the sites for the houses could he purchased, not at building, but at agricultural rates. If this were done, and special rates were charged for convoying tlm workmen to and from their work, they could live- very much cheaper than it worTcl bo possible to do \fi town. This would obviously be the case where an acre or so was also utilised to assist, in the growth- of produce for the use of the family. If such a scheme were found practicable there seems no doubt that a goodly proportion of artisans could live under very much healthier surroundings than tliev enjoy at the present: time, and tin? .old bogey of rent .would not be nearly so formidable as it is to most of them under existing circumstances.' The suggestion has been made in Gisborne that- the municipality should take up this question of providing homos for the workers. If anything of the kind should bo considered at any time we should hope that the railway will be used as an adjunct to the scheme, and that the homes will not be dumped down in areas that are already sufficiently congested,, and where the cost of the land will be so great as to make a stiff rental for the completed homes absolutely necessary.