HOUSING POLICY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 3, 1 December 1944, Page 5

HOUSING POLICY

MINISTER'S DEFENCE. (Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 30 No Allied country could compare with New Zealand in wartime bousing, contended the Minister of Works (Mr Semple) in the course of the debate on the Rehabilitation Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives this evening. We were building 3000 houses today, one-third of them out of materials other than timber. The Minister exhibited to the House a sample of pumice board which, he said, had resulted from experimentation. It was prepared from pumice, of which New Zealand had many million tons, and those who had been developing the process believed they had solved the problem of consolidating pumice, at the same time making it moisture-proof to prevent dampness in the interior of the house. This new pumice board had been subjected to water pressure and many tests and he believed it was now 100 per cent, right. A contract had been let for the construction of ten houses oT this material and a big contractor was building a large factory to undertake its wholesale production. If it was as successful as he hoped, it would save tens of thousands of feet of timber. Mr Semple said he did not want tl> see any returned men living in garagoo or tents. He wanted to see the standards of housing raised not lowered. "This year, if things go as I think they will," added the Minister, "I think that, with permits issued for private building, with State Advances loans, and with the State houses being built, we will have built a total of 9000 new houses, which will be more than ever before in any one year."