MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17375, 23 January 1920, Page 6

MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

CITY ' COUNCIL'S SCHEME. I \ ' .. i ' STATE AID INADEQUATE. ' ... OWN" FINANCE NECESSARY.'

'The City Council is ; to consider tho ad-, visability '. of i proceeding , with' its. housing scheme ■ independently of State aid. In a special report ; 011 the : subject which the Mayor,, Mr. J. H. Gunson, submitted to the council last evening ho stated that oil June 12 last-trecommendations wero made to tho council involving . tho r erorticn of 79 houses upon 1 the old abattoir ' site ;at Grey Lynn. ; ; : Tho council adopted [these recommendations, but no action , had yet been taken - toward their erection.- It '.now appeared clear that, as far,: as Auckland wis concerned, any Government assistance would bo. relatively useless, in . fact, - totally insufficient to obtain •; evon, y'a semblance of relief for the community in this connection. 'In this circumstance the council ■ .was, faced with tho ;; position of executing tho proposals upon the) responsibility of its own finance or else abandoning the scheme, x : ' , . The question was too important to leave without ■ further ' -joiifideratio-ii,;; said . the -Mayor, ; ; It ' was •• therefore recommended that the council's: polisy bo immediately determined;; If it were v; decided to; proceed, loan authority from ; the ■ ratepayers would become : immediately: necessary. There was. also i the. question: of a num. being rendered available, from which the council might advance money ,to workers to : purchase ; their, ; homes. This could be done under a scheme which would mean individual purchase by the workers,''rand a sufficient return to the council to. cover the outlay. Lcglislative . authority •• already existed for this. .. Circumstances had come under 'notice, from which it was concluded that - it was necessary ,i for ,; tho - council jto _ consider this aspect of . the . nutter also in connection with its own employees, particularly the tramway service, where tlto work necessitated i the men being close at hand. In many eases the men were losing their homes o.ving • to, them being purchased over, their heads. : •-,- ; In moving that the' report' be • referred to the committee of the council as a whole the Mayor said there were two questions to be considered. In the first place, they would probably want £60,000 for the scheme adopted by the council. Tho Government advanced were, however, limited to £10.000. Such a sum would obviously bo' useless, and would not provide more than 12 to 15 of the houses. The second question was that of • providing houses for the tramway • employees at Epsom, some of whom had waited upon him in regard to the matter. . Under his proposal the council could enable these wen to purchase then* houses, repaying interest and principal in weekly amounts, thus securing their hemes. ' Tho motion was carried.