LAND FOR HOUSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 283, 29 November 1937, Page 10

LAND FOR HOUSING.

SECTIONS WERE TOO SMALL CHRISTCHURCH DIFFICULTY. (From Our Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. The State housing scheme on an area of 12 acres acquired by the Government at Shirley has l>een abandoned, according to reports from reliable sources in Christchurch. It is stated that the Housing Department will go elsewhere to build, although Mr. J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, will make no statement other than that the scheme in Christchurch is not likely to be held up by any shortage of land.

The Shirley area was surveyed and a plan of subdivision prepared in readiness for the State houses. It was intended to provide about 50 homes on sections ranging from 24 to 28 perches. However, a hitch occurred when it was found that the size of the sections did not comply with the by-laws of the Waimairi County Council, in whose district the land lies.

The council stipulates that fections shall be of not less than 30 perches and the plans were therefore returned to the Department with the council's objections set out. A few months later a storm of protest was heard at a council meeting, when it was alleged that officials of the Housing Department had visited ratepayers and asked them to sign a petition to have their part of the county moved into the city area.