UNEMPLOYMENT FARM COTTAGES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 245, 13 September 1933, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT FARM COTTAGES

INSUFFICIENT SAFETY MARGIN. MANAWATU COUNTY PROTEST. Strong criticism of the cottages being built under the Government’s unemployment farm scheme was voiced at yesterday’s meeting of the Manawatu County Council by the engineer (Mr H. V. Bond) who, in drawing attention to the typo of cottage being built throughout the country, but more especially within the Manawatu County, placed before the council a plan of the buildings spoken of. “There appear,” said Mr Bond, “to bo two standard plans to which they are built, namely, typo ‘A’ and ‘B’. The type ‘B’, I consider, requires some alteration. The only entrance to the house is from the rear. No entrance is allowed for in the front. It will be remembered that in the case of the Westlake fire at Himatangi there was only one entrance to the dwelling and in consequence lives were lost. It is evident that the house was built without the knowledge or consent of the council.

“The materials being used for the construction of these farm cottages do not satisfy the requirements of the county by-laws, the timber being far below the standard demanded. The Government is having these cottages built without any communication being made with the council on the matter; therefore, not one of the dwellings has been erected with the consent of the council. This position is bad enough, but it has a much farther reaching effect. During the month I have received an application for a building permit for the erection of a dwelling on a fa.rm, the farmer adopting the unemployment scheme farm cottage type ‘B’. This cottage is to be built privately and not by the Government. I have so far refused to issue a permit for the reasons stated above, but by correspondence the farmer has indicated that 'what is good enough for the Government is good enough for him.’ 1 have since written informing him of the serious consequences which could eventuate from the omission of a second entrance.

“In bringing this matter before the council I feel that if some representations were made to the Government’ to cease erecting dwellings as described above, similar tragedies to that which occurred at Himatangi would be averted in the future. Were there children in one of these cottages and a fire took place it would be almost impossible for them to escape,” Mr Bond concluded. Members of , the council took a strong view of the position and unanimously endorsed the engineer’s opinion.

It was decided to enter an emphatic protest against the building of such cottages and to take the matter up with the Minister in charge.

JThe tragedy at Himatangi referred to above occurred on September 6, when eight people perished in the fire which destroyed a cottage on the property of Mr J. B. Westlake, part of the Barber Estate, occupied at the time of the occurrence by Mr Westlako and Mr and Mrs Thomas Wright and their four children, and Mr S. H. Thomson, of Palmerston North, a farm hand.

The inquest into the tragedy was held at Foxton on October 15, 1929, when the Coroner returned a verdict that all eight occupants came to their deaths on September 6 while living in a house owned by Mr J. B. Westlake at Himatangi, the building being totally destroyed and the bodies so burned as to be unrecognisable bv medical evidence. Though the Coroner commented tha.t the mystery of what transpired in the house , that night would never be cleared up, it was established in the evidence that a shot had been fired, a bullet hole having been found in one of the skulls.