HOUSING SCHEME

Hokitika Guardian, 6 October 1936, Page 4

HOUSING SCHEME

MR LEE REVIEWS PROGRESS

v (Press Association—Copyright.)

WELINGTON, October 5. The progress which has been made in the preliminary organisation for the Government’s housing scheme was referred to in an interview to-day by Mr J. A. Lee, Parliamentary Undersecretary in charge of the Ministry for Housing. The houses will be constructed of different materials and will vary in appearance, yet a large amount of construction work in each house is standardised, and this will have a considerable effect on costs, Mr Lee: said. Al- \ lowance would be made dor. the .neces-yC-sity of varying designs in different districts. For instance, level sections which were available for the Wellington scheme at Hutt would require a different type of house from sloping sections at Orakci. Such kcal factors as wind velocity would also he taken into consideration, and tihe houses to be built would probably be designed so that full advantage could be taken of climatic conditions.

Th e preduction of materials would be standardised as far as possible, Mr Lee continued,’ and as hundreds of houses would probably be ]>uilt at atime the Government would be in a position to place large orders for tain classes of building materials which would have tho effect of reducing costs. For instance there were indications already that th£ price ■ of bricks could be materially’fWiitfecFfor" «V large orders. Mr Lee mentioned that bricks which cost about a 3f U* • were obtainable in England about 25s or 27s 6d a 1000. Mass production methods would probably bring down cho New Zealand ■price to.a marked extent. - m '' * :

“We hope to be able to call tenders for some of the individual schemes in tho near future,” Mr Lee .added. “Until thou, and until we can get a definite idea of how actual building operations are progressing no announcement about costs or probable rentals is likely to be made.”