DISCUSSION AT TOWN-PLANNING CONFERENCE..

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 23 May 1919, Page 7

DISCUSSION AT TOWN-PLANNING CONFERENCE..

<BT TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, .May 23. The housing problem formed the subject of a paper, prepared by Mr F. W. Rowley, Superintendent of Workers' Dwellings, read at the Town-planning ._ Conference. . Thp paper dealt more particularly '•with the erection of houses for workers. It .was stated that now that the workers' dwellings system had passed the experimental stage it must be developed on a much larger scale; Some occupants of rural dwellings had done exceedingly well out of their land. To make the scheme of erecting workers' dwellings really successful" it must be made possible to erect them in wholesale fashion, thereby reducing the initial cost materially. In this conneotion the paper mentioned the great ■advantage from all points of view of building a new village or suburb close to a railway line, but outside any existing borough, and on what wa s at the time of erecting the village merely farming land. In a settlement of that sort all the town planners' ideals could he incorporated.

During a discussion on the paper Mr J. Campbell, Government architect, said that the day of the entirely wooden house was passing. To reduce the»cost of building.the size of sections could be reduced with advantage, while building by-laws should be remodelled to enable new materials to be used.

Mr Howard, Christchureh, said that a housing scheme was an immediate necessity. There was need for 10,000 new mouses, and the Government should allocate £3,000,000, free of interest to :start the movement. '