REVIEW
29
the buildings have been converted, on the lines already mentioned, into orthodox self-contained flats. The essential need is to restore to these deprived lives something of the personal dignity and pride which privacy affords, and which communal living, for all its advantages, denies. But the conversion of the multi-storey blocks cannot yet be foreseen. The frustrating aspect of what has been done is that it cannot be carried to completion in a single home until the same preliminary process has been repeated over and over again, and until many of the contingent problems have been resol- ved. Some 300,000 squatters remain to be resettled. In terms of expenditure actually incurred on those who have been resettled, this means 200 more acres of land, 120 more seven- storey blocks, a further $200,000,000 from public funds and a continuing strain on
strain on Government's and the Colony's resources in all aspects of planning and construction. Just how all this money and land and concentrated effort is to be found is a question for the future. A recent issue of "The Economist' praises the drive and energy with which the task of resettling the squatters is being pursued, but describes it as an 'apparently hopeless task'. It can, however, be said that as much money is being spent annually as the speed of the engineers and contractors on the land will allow, and that land and basic engineering capacity are the limiting factors. Subject to these limiting factors, plans exist for the resettle- ment of 230,000 more squatters in the next six years.
But soon it may be that the contingent problems which these very activities in turn create may themselves exert a restraining influence. The conventional housing needs of the Colony are desperately serious and are thought by some to demand priority. It is certain that conditions in some old tenement buildings are far worse than conditions in most resettlement blocks. It is also certain that for every dollar that has been spent by Government, whether directly or by way of subsidy, on conventional housing much more than a dollar has been spent on resettlement. This deferment of the