HOUSING PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 23 May 1919, Page 5

HOUSING PROBLEM

AN URGENT^MATTER,

DWELLINGS FOR WORKERS,

(United Press Association’

WELLINGTON, Tim Day

I 'The Housing Problem formed the subject of a paper prepared by Mr F. W. Rowley, Superintendent of Workers’ j Dwellings, read at the Town-Planning j Conference. I The paper dealt more particularly with erection of homes for workers. It . was stilted that now the workers’ dwellings system had passed the experimental stage, it must be developed on much i larger scales. Some of the 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 a wholesale fashion, thereby reducing the initial cost materially. In this connection the paper mentioned great .adyantagbs from all points of view of building a new village or sub--1 uvb close to the railway line, but outside any existing borough and on what was at the time ,of erection of the village. merely farming land. In settlements of that sort, all the town-plan-ners’ ideals could be incorporated. During the discussion on the paper, Mr J. Campbell, Government Architect, said the day of the entirely. wooden house was passing. To reduce the cost iof building,- the size., of sections could Ibe reduced with advantage, while the j building by-laws should be remodelled to enable new materials to be used.

Mr Howard, Chrisichui’ch, said the housing scheme was an immediate necessity. Tliere was need tor 10,000 new houses. The Government should allocate £3,000,000 free of interest to start the movement. The committee appointed by the Town-Planning Conference to consider the housing problem, recommended- that the Government should recognise the housing shortage as one of the pressing national questions, and should co-oper-ate with local' authorities in carrying out housing schemes on town-planning lines, the State to undertake the financing of the schemes, subsequently full control to be in the hands of municipalities. It was suggested that the Government should subsidise local bodies up to one-third' of the cost of building schemes, that the sum of £1,000.000 as subsidy be at once set aside. The report was adopted