BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 83, 8 April 1938, Page 13

BANK OF NEW ZEALAND

Mr. A. T. Donnelly, Christchurch, chairman of the board of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, was today re-elected for the ensuing year.

age by rendering a larger number' of dwellings necessary to house the same number of people. '

DAY OF WOODEN HOUSE ENDING.

"Mr. Luke comments again on the unsatisfactory state of some of the wooden houses, and.hints that their upkeep is proving too expensive for many of their owners.

My persona!*, opinion is that this state of affairs is likely to become increasingly evident, and that it will not be long before the day of the wooden house is a "thing of the past Probably within another twenty years or less few, if any, wooden buildings will be erected.

"There is no doubt that the maintenance and depreciation charges on property in New Zealand are far too high and are among the principal factors in causing high rents. The Government has at'least given a commendable lead in this ■ direction in that by far the greater number of their houses, while built in wooden frames, are covered with a brick veneer, so saving expense due to depreciation, borer, painting, and rot. Few would quarrel with the Government houses so far as- their construction is concerned.

"It is interesting to- -note the suggestion made that the City Council, in addition to making some of its land available for the Government, as has already been done at Northland, is contemplating making such land available to private concerns ■-. on reasonable terms. This should appeal to building societies and others concerned who, we hope, will- take advantage, of it. They will certainly do so if conditions in other directions can be made as attractive for them as those which the City Council offer. Particularly one would recommend to the City Council the question of taking part of the purchase price of the land on second mortgage, as it is well known that the difference between the amount obtainable on first mortgage and the amount which the average buyer has available for a deposit is the most frequent bar to any large-scale erection of houses. This applies equally even if the house is let, as if it is possible for a building society to build a house and leave only, say, £150 instead of £300 on each house, it is obvious that twice as many houses can be built for the same capital."

PLATS VERSUS HOMES,

Questioned as to the proportion of flats versus homes, Mr. Williamson stated that it was definitely his opinion that an increasingly large proportion of the total population would come to live in flats, the erection of which had only just begun. There was undoubtedly room for many more flats of varying types to be let at varying rentals, but consideration' should be given before the flats were erected to seeing that they were in fact suitable for the locality, and could be let at rents that people in that locality could be expected to pay.

The whole idea of every breadwinner owning his quarter-acre was undoubtedly very desirable in theory but utterly impossible in practice owing to transport, and in Wellington particularly owing to the geographical features of the city. This fact had been discovered already in all the large cities of the world.

The City Engineer's report appears on page 6.