A JOB WELL DONE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1930, Page 8

A JOB WELL DONE

PROFITABLE ALSO

AND A STATE ENTERPRISE!

Semi-final figures of the great Government subdivision in the ' Lower Hutt-Petone eastern area are now available, and they are eloquent.

Four years ago, the land was open paddock. It was bought for £174,472. The' State (through tho Lands Department) determined to carry out a real public welfare subdivision, with the result that £199,061— epnsiderably more than tho first cost of the land— was expended in subdividing on a scale of efficient service. And the result has well justified it, for the sales to date total £488,244. Thus a gross profit of £171,148 is disclosed on tho trading account. ■ •

In its profit figures, but not in its service figures, this return might be taken as representing a gz;and coup by private enterprise. That it is a State undertaking seems hardly credible, if one were to judge by tho financial standing of some other State undertakings here and elsewhere. Still,- the figures speak for themselves; and the quality of the streets, tho services, and the general lay-out also speaks for itself.

The scheme originated with tho then Mayor of Lower Hutt, who secured the land-purchase options. A committee took iv hand tho workers'- homes part of the scheme, and the Wellington District Office of the Lands Department (the Commissioner of-'Crown Lands and the Chief Surveyor) undertook the subdivision and section-selling of the auction area. It was the Lands oflicials' job to pull the nioney, and they pulled it. But first of all they had to expend ruoro than the purchase price, in order to make tho subdivision a model one. To do this, in the face of pessimism, needed pluck. The question is thus raised whether} in town-planning interests, the standards of private subdivision should be more strictly defined, especially in nonborough lands destined to become suburban or urban.

Alongside Lower Hutt and Petone this new residential area—railwayed, strocted, sewered, handsomely built — has grown up almost in a night. Do not its authors and architects and staffs deserve well of tho State?

A subdivisional cost exceeding the first cost of the land, and yet a gross profit nearly equal to the first cost of the land, indicate worry and responsibility for someone, as these results do not accrue of themselves..

The- not profit emerging from this gross profit is £148,795, and this will go to the Department of Railways, which may thus be slightly appeased for carrying workers at below cost. At any rate, the Bailways Department has not many such windfalls.

i'or what ho still owob (on capital account) to the Lands for Settlement Account, the Commissioner of Crown Lands will be paying this year in interest about £6285. But the interest due to him on the unpaid purchase money of sections is not less than £12,760 for tho year!

On velvet?