£700 PER HOUSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 November 1924, Page 5

£7OO PER HOUSE

STANDARDISED DWELLINGS. FOR RAILWAY WORKERS. HAWERA’S QUOTA. As a result of the Railway Department’s new system 1 oi ' standardisation in the election ;of raiwaymen’s cottages, good five-roomed dwellings are being erected on Turuturu Road at a cost which works out at somewhere about £7OO per house. All the . sections of the standard houses are built at the Railway Department’s factory at Frankton. Junction, and are turned out at the rate of seven per week.. Every part, even to the cupboards, is manufactured at the . factory, and, every separate piece being marked and numbered, all that is necessary when they arrive is to put them together.- • For-this work the Rail- , way Department usuallyeinpioys its own construction- gangs, which travel about the country, but in some in-4 stances circumstances render it necessary to have the work done by contract. The factory is run by a mail who has spent some time in America studying methods in connection with wholesale house-building. 'The houses are of five rooms, with all. conveniences, and they should prove comfortable homes. The interiors are all nicely finished, and the timber is all well seasoned and of high quality. It is estimated that there are 25,000 pieces in one house. Recently a contract to erect nine such, houses on Turuturu, Road was let to four local men —Messrs Henderson, Howell, King and Rudge—and since they commenced work early in October good progress has been made. Already three houses are practically completed, and work is well advanced on a fourth. The interiors of the houses are the same in each case, hut in the roofs and porches there are four different plans, so that the monotony is broken and the dwellings made more attractive. -

Sub-contracts have been let by the contractors, the painting going to Mr. T. McConnell, tne bricklaying to Mr. O. . Dahl, the plumbing to * Messrs Smith and Ellis, -and the cartino- to Messrs Moore and Chadwick. All” are local men