HOUSING SURVEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 8

HOUSING SURVEY.

COST TO BOROUGHS. POSITION NOT YET CLEAR. MANY QUESTIONS RAISED. \ Fears that if they were compelled to carry out a housing survey over the whole of their areas the cost would constitute an unfair burden upon straitened finances were expressed this morning by local body authorities. To most of them the matter raises a number of questions, the most important of which is whether it is mandatory upon them to carry out the survey in detail, or whether a summarised report presented by their sanitary and health officers would be sufficient in the case of miner local bodies. They point out that special and highly qualified officers would have to be employed, because it is essential that the information should be tactfully and correctly obtained, and that even in the smallest areas the taking of the survey in its multitudinous detail would require a number of weeks of work. The officers employed, because of the qualifications necessary, would have to be fairly highly paid, ami the total cost would run into hundreds of pounds. For this expenditure thev had not budgeted, and it would mean a big drain. They suggest that if it is mandatory that the survey should be made, then it should lie regarded as a national matter and the cost borne by the Government. Survey Regulations. In the Housing Survey Regulations, 1 1930. it is stated that "(1) Every local body, which desires to make a housing survey of defined area within its district to the exclusion of other areas, not later than one month after the said Act the Housing Survey Act, 103;)) has been applied to the local authority make application to the Minister for his approval of the proposed defined artfa, and, I with such application, shall forward a i map in duplicate, of the district defining thereon, by means of a coloured boundary line, edged blue, tte area in respect of which the application is made." All. local bodies have now been asked to make the survey, which is required by July, 1937. Acting on the provision set out above the Auckland City Council has already made application to the Minister in Charge of Housing. Mr. J. A. Lee, supplying maps and full infori mation of* an area which they have asked to be defined as the area to be surveyed. It is pointed out that there are a number of districts in the city where it can be accepted that there is a good standard of housing, and that it is only in the districts where overcrowding exists that the survey is necessary in the present instance. To that application the council is awaiting a reply. In the smaller local body areas the position is not so clear. It is pointed out that in these areas in the majority of cases there are not very large populations, and that though there are houses that could be improved they are mostly already known to the authorities. It is pointed out, too, that if the city's application is successful it should make it unnecessary in many instances for a survey to be made at all in the outer areas. The congested districts are nearly all within the city, and in some of the outer districts thl conditions generally are better than they are even in the areas which have not been included in the area the city has defined. In this connection it is interesting to recall that Mr. J. Melling, acting-town clerk of Auckland, set out in his report relating to his recent visit to England considerable information on the housing surveys made in England. He pointed out that in many cases the standard required by the local authority was higher than that required by the Housing Act. For instance, he quoted that in Leeds, tinder the Government standard, 4.27 per cent of the houses were overcrowded {2345 out of the 72,500 inspected). If the local standard had been applied it would have been found that 15,127, or 21.13 per cent were overcrowded. It is pointed outf locally that the standard Bet by the local authority is in many cases a high one, and that therefore Ho survey .should be necessary.