HOUSES FOR CITIZENS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1925, Page 8

HOUSES FOR CITIZENS

NOTICE OF MOTION TO COUNCIL

LAND OWNED BY CORPORATION.

Councillor R. M'Keen has given notice of his intention to move at the next meeting of the City Council: "That a special committee of five members be set up to investigate and report upon ways and means whereby the' council could provide for the erection of dwellings for the citizens at- the most reasonable cost, and thereby assist to relieve the present acute housing shortage." Tho Mayor (Mr. G. B. Norwood) lias already intimated that it is his intention to move for tho formation of such ;i committee. It was suggested at the special meeting of the council, at which the main committees of the council were set up, that the housing question might be considered by the Works Committee, but Mr. Norwood replied that he considered a special committee should be formed, a committee distinct from the standing committees of the council. * Many expressions of opinion are heard that the council should take steps towards making available for housing purposes the splendid block of land at ths back of the wireless hill. This block, of considerably over a hundred acres,' was acquired by the Corporation some considerable time ago, but up to the present has remained as it was when purchased, a grazing area. At present it is not easy of access, but an extension of the transit services to be given Northland will bring it very much closer to the city as regards minutes of travelling. A great part of the block is practicafly level, and all of itis suitable for building purposes. Suggestions were made some time ago that the Corporation might plan ahead for a model housing area, and set out at once shelter belts or ornamental plantations, but apparently these did not commend themselves.

The Corporation also owns a very large block of land at Khandallah, the Homebush Block, much of it good, buildable land, but there again the question of access is the stumbling block at present The new road to Khandallah, constructed some time ago out of loan moneys, and chiefly as a work to relieve iinemployment, offers much better access to motorists, but helps the pedestrian not very much. The construction of an inclined tramway up Wainwright's Gully has been sketched out as the solution of the access difficulty to Khandallah, coupled with an extension of the track-less-car service beyond its present outer terminus at Kaiwarra.

A smaller area also is owned by the council at Northland, the balance of the land purchased for the Northland housing scheem of the war years, and not bmtt upon. The plans for this Northland housing block, by the way, provided for the laying out of a decorative area in the centre, shrubs, grass, and the like, but so far the ground lay-out has not followed on the paper lay-out.