HOUSING TARGET

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 64, 13 September 1945, Page 6

HOUSING TARGET

GOVERNMENT PLANS

LABOUR AND MATERIAL

Details of the Government's plans for overcoming the shortage of houses were -given in the House of Representatives last evening by the Minister of Rehabilitation and Commissioner of State Forests (Mr. Skinner), who also discussed the vital need for training large numbers of skilled tradesmen to reach the target of 12,000 houses a year, the use of materials other than wood, and the exploitation of the Dominion's ability to grow timber rapidly. He emphasised that in spite of the war New Zealand was producing more timber annually than in any pre-war year.

Mr. Skinner said the use of alterI native materials was slowed up just because of the inherent difficulties in constructing with those materials, The Government was not searching for new materials, but new methods of fixing them so that they could be easily handled. He was quite sure that the Government would be able to build a big proportion of houses in alternative materials, chiefly concrete —precast in various forms—and brick, and in that way some of the material difficulties were being overcome. Referring to the shortage of cement, the Minister said it was well known that cement was limited even if all the coal that could be burned were available. The limiting factor wa"s the capacity, of the kilns at present installed, but an expert had been out to New Zealand quite recently to plan the extension of quite a number of cement works. It was hoped that the operations would be put in hand very soon. ' ■ Since the Housing Department started the construction of houses in New Zealand 9843 dwellings had been built in materials other than timberbrick veneer, concrete veneer, and 218 houses of concrete throughout. It had gone well past the experimental stage, and contractors today were wrestling with finding better ways of fixing precast materials. The greatest number of houses that had ever been built in the Dominion in one year was just on 8000, of which the Government built nearly 4000, but that would not overcome the shortage that was facing not only New Zealand, but every country in the world. The number of houses being built would have to be increased substantially. NEED FOR TRADESMEN. An investigation had been carried out and the target was a minimum of 12.000 houses a year, but from where were the tradesmen to come? In.New Zealand today there were 7390 carpenters, 1000 joiners, and 1700 plumbers. To build 12,000 houses a year and carry on normal maintenance it would be necessary to train 9300 carpenters, 11,040 joiners, 250 plumbers, 485 bricklayers—just to build the same proportion of *orick and brick veneer houses as today—and 3850 additional painters. The Government was not going into the task blind. " The target was there and men were being trained in the proportion in which they would be needed. More training schools were being opened to build up a wellbalanced army of tradesmen, which would enable the housing shortage to be overtaken as the material position improved. He was convinced that timber, would always be the chief building material in New Zealand, continued Mr. Skinner. The Dominion could grow timber faster than any other country in the world, and that factor had to be exploited. He considered the timber industry to be one of the greatest of the country's primary industries. In spite of the fact that New Zealand had been at war for six years, timber | production today was higher than in any pre-war year. In the year before last 351,000,000 feet of timber was produced, and in the following year 342,000,000 feet, although thousands of men had come out of the timber industry during the war years. Those men were replaced, generally speaking, with men who had had no previous experience, but still production was maintained. Today the industry was paying for that. Much of the developmental work that should have been done in those war years had been neglected, and although 1000 men,had entered the industry in the last 12 months a big percentage of them was employed in developmental work, which had eaten into the profits of the companies. Plans were being made now to build up the production of timber, both indigenous and exotic. The housing target would need something like 450,000,000 feet of timber a year, and the plant at present in the country would produce that quantity if it were fully staffed. EXPORT OF TIMBER. It was true that prior to the war the Dominion had an agreement with Australia to export certain quantities of timber in exchange for hardwood. The question had been asked whether that hardwood was being hoarded. Ninety per cent, of that timber was going to the Railways Department. If the high degree of safety on the railways was to be maintained there must be good hardwood sleepers, and the traffic in timber could hardly be entirely one way. Timber production today was limited only by the number of men employed in the industry, and if timber for sleepers was not imported the men engaged in cutting timber for housing would have to be used for producing sleepers. Steel and concrete had been tried, but nothing was as good as hardwood for sleepers. Detailed plans, covering hundreds of thousands of acres from north of Auckland to Bluff, had been prepared for the expansion of timber production, but in some places that lacked timber and where forests should be established the price asked for land—£lo, £12, and £14 an acre —was prohibitive.