CITY HOUSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 129, 1 June 1923, Page 4

CITY HOUSING.

i With characteristic energy the Mayor '. lias prepared a plan for municipal liousi ing in Auckland, the gist of which is that I the Council shall build some hundreds of concrete houses, in batches of fifty, in the Western .Springs area, at a. suggested sale prior, land included, of £923. The houses are to be sold, not let, and the payments will be spread over thirty yoars. There is somo boldness in this scheme, and if six hundred houses can be built on this area something appreciable will have been done to ease the Lousing pressure. Criticism and suggestions, however, may be offered on or- or t\v,» points. The Mayor lias obi ned cl.-igns for houses from tlie City Engineer. Has he consulted anybody else? Mr. Bush is an architect as Well aa an engineer, but lie is not a practising architect in the ordinary I sense. Would it not be well, in a matter ;so important, to consult the profession whose business is designing buildings, and particularly those who may have made a spei-uil study of cheap iiiirl artistic housing in other countries? The erection of nix hundred houses in one enterprise in one area is a fairly large effort in suburban extension, bo should not tin? host principles of town-planning Iμ; follow.;.! aa far as possible' Cheapness in absolutely essential, but that need not rule out. dignity and beauty altogether In brief, we would urge that tlii* enterprise be not unduly rushed, hul that the best advice available tm. olitiiinccl. A conference of experts i might be invited with advantage. Other fjuestions not unconnected with this arc whether the estimate is the lowest possible, whether the possibilities of cheaper methods of construe- i tion have been fully explored, and whether the Council means to bind itself irrevocably to the detached cottage type I of house. Are the terraced and semi- I detached types to be ruled out altogether? A house standing apart in a garden of ils own is a fine ideal, but will , it. ahvgys be possible to achieve in a I large city? A low rental is the essence ' of a sound housing scheme for the benefit j of the class that needs it most, and ' until more information is available about the financial side of this scheme '■ it is impossible to weigh it properly. The Government estimated two years , ago that Hi per cent was the necessary j

outlay for a purchasing occupant of a State-erected house, which on a £900 property amounts to more than a pound it week. Money is now cheaper, bo there should be some reduction in the payments on such a property. Let us bear in mind that for the lowest paid class of wage-earner anything round about a pound a week in still a high rent.