"SCARCELY ANY SLUMS"

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21967, 16 December 1936, Page 10

"SCARCELY ANY SLUMS"

Housing Conditions In Christchurch %

OBSERVATIONS OF MR J. A. LEE

"I asked at least half-a-dozen persons to be shown the slums of Christchurch. We saw ' all the 'slums,' so called, within 20 minutes, and frankly, to us they appeared to be merely sub-normal housing. Indeed, it was pleasing to find, after imploring to be shown the worst housing conditions prevalent in Christchurch, that, apart from the need for new construction, we could go away feeling that there was scarcely anything in the city that could be described as a slum," said Mr J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Housing, yesterday in an interview with a representative of "The Press." Mr Lee arrived in Christchurch on Monday evening from the south, in company with his private secretary, Mr F. G. J. Temm* and Mr R. B. Hammond, architect and town planning expert for housing construction. The party left for Wellington last night. Plans for Christchurch In explanation of his remarks about the absence of slums in Christchurch, Mr Lee said that after all it took a combination- of factors to make a slum. As a rule the constitution of a slum involved not only an aggregation of old houses, but a congestion of them on a little space, with a lack of light and air. It would be difficult, he added, to find any substantial combination of these factors in Christchurch, and certainly difficult to find old houses so closely congested that there was a shortage of light and air. Nearly everybody he had met in Christchurch, said Mr Lee, had impressed upon him the difficulty of finding houses to rent, and that obviously was a situation calling for fresh construction. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) had already announced that work concerning the Auckland contract for housebuilding was in hand, commented Mr Lee, and, soon the Department of Housing hoped to be able to show that it was getting ready to engage in building construction in Christchurch. Bargains in Building Sections Land had been acquired at prices that showed an astonishing saving over the figure paid for adjacent sections in boom days, and, if the State Housing DepartmenJ; had shown one thing, it was that, associated with the Lands Department, it was making good bargains in the acquisition of building sections. Mr Lee went on to say that his attention had been drawn to the difficulty with which the city was faced, in controlling the acquisition of large houses and their conversion into rooming houses, without adequate sanitary provision. It might be that legislation to control that type of reconstruction was necessary.

STATE JOINERY WORKS

NO PROPOSALS FOR SOUTH ISLAND

"The two State joinery factories to be established in the North Island will do little more than take up the peak load of the demand for joinery necessary to ensure the success of the State housing scheme," said Mr J. A. Lee, Under-Secre-tary in charge of State Housing, to a representative of "The Press" yesterday. ' Mr Lee said that there had been much mistaken s misapprehension about the Government's decision to establish these two joinery factories. The programme which the Government had in hand, however, was of such magnitude that these factories could not be expected to supply more than a relatively small proportion of requirements. No investigation as to the establishment of similar factories in the South Island had been made, nor was any investigation contemplated at present. If he were engaged in the timber business he would consider it a sound trade risk to have ample supplies of good building timber on hand during the year.

HOUSING OF PENSIONERS

POSITION IN CHRISTCHURCH

"Ah interesting feature of any visit to Christchurch was a colony or two of pensioners located in groups of very old houses, but certainly there was ample light and air and space about these habitations," said Mi: J. A. Lee, Parliamentary UnderSecretary for Housing, to a representative of "The Press," yesterday. "The problem of providing accommodation for the pensioner who has hitherto been compelled to inhabit a very old house, which otherwise would be abandoned or abolished, is one of which the Prime Minister is well aware," proceeded Mr Lee. "The Ministry of Housing intends, after its main schemes of construction have been launched, to devote attention to this problem, and see whether it will be possible to evolve a scheme of high-grade but cheap houses for pensioner couples. Until there is some such provision, it is difficult to disturb such colonies of pensioners as are housed in certain portions of Christchurch."