Houses for Low-Wage

Earners in Fiji

( Contributed ) IT has been announced that £250,000 has been allocated to erect houses in Fiji for low-wage earners. No mention, however, is made whether this scheme comes into the First Five Year Plan, the Second Five Year Plan, or even into the Ten Year Plan.

No doubt the site has already been selected, but like all Government schemes, it will probably call for the set up of a new Government Department, called the Low-Wage Earners Housing Department, with the usual trappings and overhead.

When the offices to house the officials of this Low-Wage Earners Housing De partment have been suitably equipped, the technicians involved will go into the usual huddle to decide whether the foun dations should comprise bau bau posts or concrete piles; whether the house should be six inches or two feet off the ground (the latter would enable the low-wage earner to stack his firewood out of the wet—if the Conservator of Forests allows him any firewood); whether the house should have one or two bedrooms, since a low-wage earner should not be able to afford children in spite of the old song “The Rich get richer, and the Poor get children.”

When all these preliminary details have been adjusted to the satisfaction of the various Government Departments con cerned. no doubt it will be found expe dient to bring in a Housing Expert—at the Colony’s expense—from say, the Highlands of Scotland, and this expert will state quite definitely that high pitched roofs are an absolute necessity to carry off the heavy falls of snow, which the Colony might be subjected to at some future date, if the atomic bomb experi ments cause atmospheric disturbances, or Moscow decides to move the Antarctic to the Tropics.

BY the time the designs have been submitted to an Architect hailing from Nigeria, and plans approved by a Special Committee, and afterwards submitted to tho Economic Adviser, it will be found that the site for the erec tion of these buildings has become so

overgrown with Paddys Lucerne or El lington Curse, that the weeding gang attached to either the Agricultural De partment or the Public Works Depart ment will have to be called in.

These men, working under our newly formed Unions in Fiji, will probably take a couple of years to clear the site, as their usual weeding methods consist of 12 slashes of the cane-knife and then a quarter of an hour’s spell.

When the site is eventually cleared, it will be found that a certain amount of levelling is required, by which time it will be discovered that the present bull dozers owned by the Government, have “had it” and new equipment will have to be ordered through the Crown Agents.

Taking the new engines for the Suva Power House as a precedent, this will result in a further delay of a couple of years, by which time the plans will be found to be old-fashioned, as the new Government Architect will probably have come from Malaya, where they have a different type of building to house low wage earners.

WHEN the Low-Wage Earners Depart ment finally gets round to the question of erecting these houses for low-wage earners, it will be found that the original £250,000 grant has shrunk by about three noughts, and in order that these poor, harassed officials should have some alternative scheme to fall back upon, it is suggested that the 20-years-old plan of reclaiming the waterfront between the Grand Pacific and the Grammar School be proceeded with. On this reclamation, comfortable padded seats are to be erected, with per haps gaily striped awnings overhead, to keep off the tropical sun, and these seats could be advertised “To let, comfortable sleep-outs, sea view—have that early morning salt-water dip which invigorates the svstem and feel rosy all over.”

When the seats have been balloted for, and leased out on a 75 year basis, the Tourist Bureau could then get busy pre paring a pamphlet to attract tourists to this “Eden of the Pacific,” and could in clude in the ‘sights’ “Come and see our There would be no need to further tax our present overtaxed Sewerage System by the adoption of this waterfront idea, because the old sea wall would take care of all problems. It would be just as well, however, if the idea is adopted, to warn the semi-defunct Rifle Club, that the sea wall is “out of bounds” and the sitters are not clay pigeons.

There is only one snag in the water front idea, and that is. that in spite of all our highly technical officials, no one has yet been able to persuade the Suva rainfall to ei v e of its plenty to the “other side of the Island.” But then, that is Suva all over—it likes to keep everything for itself.

If these Waterfront Low-Wage Earners struck the wet or rainy season, they could perhaps be given permission to make use of the commodious garages under the Government Buildings, which house the luxurious limousines of the overworked, underpaid Government offi cials—l am sorrv. I got that a bit mixed, I meant the underworked, overpaid Gov ernment officials—-between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

THE Housing Scheme for the Low- Wage Earner is a worthy one. but by the time it is out into action, the low wages of the low-wage earner will have shrunk so low, that an ordinary Fiji Bure will look as magnificent to him as now do the Government Buildings.

The Governor of Fiji, Sir Brian Freeston. and Lady Freeston, entertained 600 guests at a garden party on June 10. in honour of His Majesty’s birthday.