C'est Le Condominium!

Poorest Servant —Worst House

Letter to the Editor.

THE housing of public servants in the Condominium of the New Hebrides is at the present time presenting knotty problems to the Administration, and is causing a large amount of dissatisfac tion. There is a shortage of houses owing to an increase in the number of married servants, and Condominium fin ances are too low for the Resident Com missioners to entertain the idea of build ing more houses, or even carrying out anything but the most meagre of repairs to houses now in use.

It is hard to please everybody, and par ticularly is this true in a dual Adminis tration like the New Hebrides Condo minium: nevertheless the recent “redis tribution of houses scheme” that has just come into being is far from equitable.

Under this scheme Condominium officers are to be classed into houses according to salary. Or, in other words, poorest ser vant, worst house.

A case under notice is that of one officer who, under the new scheme, has been allotted a house that for years has been classed as unsuitable for “married quarters,” and has been used as an emer gency lodging whenever there has been a surplus of bachelors. The Administra tion will carry out nothing but what it classes as “essential repairs”—that is, sanitation and repairs to keep the rain out. This officer, therefore, though one of those under the new classification least able to afford it, is faced with the expense of making presentable a house that has for years been neglected.

There are also many other anomalous situations in connection with Condo minium houses.

C’est le Condominium!

I am, etc.,

Efate.

Vila, N. Hebrides, June 18, 1934.