STATE HOUSING.

Mt Benger Mail, 27 October 1937, Page 1

STATE HOUSING.

A THOUSAND DESIGNS Great amount op work INVOLVED Wellington, October 19. “The present housing policy in New Zealand is almost a milk-and-water policy compared with the generous assistance granted in other countries, ’ ’ said the Director of Housing Construction (Mr A. Tyndall) in an ,address on the work of his department to the Wellington Rotary Club to-day.

Outlining some of the activities of his department, which, although it was spread all over the country was not a very big one because he had tried to utilise private enterprise to the full, Mr Tyndall said there were now about 1,000 different designs for houses. The Government had said that every house had to be different, and in that it was requiring something that had been done in no other housing scheme in the world. Variety of design entailed a tremendous amount of work. Recently, for instance, the Public Works Department had submitted a bill for 34,972 blue prints, and in all about 50,000 blue prints had been made. Mr Tyndall added that land for housing schemes had been purchased in 52 towns, and building contracts had been let in 30 towns. The houses begun up to this week numbered more than 700, and the department was advertising contracts for houses at the rate of 55 houses a week. The houses were not “workers' homes,” but homes for the people of New Zealand, as there would be no income limitation.