MAORI HOUSING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 8

MAORI HOUSING

SERIOUS OVERCROWDING

REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION (0.C.) KAITAIA, this day. The serious overcrowding of native houses in the Mangonui county was referred to during a long discussion at a meeting of the Mangonui Hospital Board to-day. It was stated that a small settlement just outside the Kaitaia town boundary was causing much trouble. As many as 12 adults and children were living in ramshackle huts, built with timber and scrap iron town dumps. The children in the settlement appeared to be unhealthy and the conditions were damp and miserable. There were not sufficient beds for a third of the inhabitants. The Maoris had no right to live at this place as it was Crown land. They were a menace to the town as the children were attending the Kaitaia School.

A board member alleged that the natives were in the habit of cutting neighbouring fences to pasture their stock. They were not local people ami the local Maoris resented the disgraceful condition of the settlement.

Other board members referred to native settlements in outlying districts, where overcrowding was rife.

It was agreed that the health inspector be asked to investigate native housing conditions throughout the county. Protests from all local bodies concerning the settlement near Kaitaia have been sent to the Health Department, which has been asked to remove it.