ORIGINAL PLAN FOR SAWMILL HOUSING NEARS COMPLETION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 2

ORIGINAL PLAN FOR SAWMILL HOUSING NEARS COMPLETION

Almost all of the sawmill houses, sought by AVest -Coast sawmillers when the scheme was first brought into operation have been completed, but further work will be carried out next year on applications which have been lodged recently. So far 27 sawmill houses have been constructed at West Coast sawmilling centres and handed over to the various sawmilling companies to control.

A further eight houses were completed and handed over by the Housing Department last month, and a further six, three at Kumara and a similar number at Camerons, are expected to be ready for occupation very shortly. When these six are completed, only five more of the original number will remain to be built. These will comprise the group it is planned to erect at Stoney creek, near Kaniere, Hokitika, where strong objections were made to the use of a site which had apparently proved unsatisfactory on previous occasions. The objections were overruled, however, on the ground that it was against Government policy to erect the sawmill houses inside a radius, of five miles from the nearest State dwelling. It is understood, however, that negotiations on this, issue are still continuing and, on a settlement on . a site being reached, construction work will commence.

In the meantime,, eight new applications for houses under the scheme have been received by the Housing Department. In some cases sawmillers plan an extension of the groups of houses already obtained under the scheme, while in other leases sawmillers are entering the scheme for the first time. _____