NEW FLATS OPENED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 58, 6 September 1943, Page 6

NEW FLATS OPENED

BLOCK IN DIXON STREET

. The new block of State flats, comprising 116 separate units, in Dixon Street, was opened on Saturday by the Minister of Works (Mr. Semple).-' The building incorporates a number of new and. interesting features in flat construction.

At the opening ceremony Mr. Semple said that the site was historic. It had been selected by Mr. George Hunter, first Mayor of Wellington, as his first place of residence. The house which Mr. Hunter had brought out in sections from England had stood there more than 40, years before it was removed to make way for a commodious twostorey wooden house, which in turn had made way for the new flats.

The completed scheme was in many ways unusual, said Mr. Semple. He referred to a number of features embodied in the construction of the flats,' including privacy and sunlight for each flat, and freedom from noise. There was accommodation for 234 people in the 116 units, the areas of which were either 540 square feet or 560 square feet. The provision made for radio reception in the flats was the first-of its kind in New Zealand. Instead of an array of unsightly aerials only! one aerial was provided^ and this would be "laid on" to each fiat. The tenants would be able to receive New Zealand stations and overseas short-wave broadcasts with minimum interference from adjoining flats and power circuits. In case there- should be any mis- v understanding of'the. proportion of flatsl to individual houses erected by the Plousing Construction Department, said Mr. Semple, he would point out that to date 16,828 houses had been erected, and only 260 flats, including the new blo.ck, making the percentages of dwelling units erected 98£ of houses and H of flats.