CHEAP HOUSES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6625, 15 September 1908, Page 2

CHEAP HOUSES.

FOB TUB BENEFIT OF THE WORK.EKS. LOW RENTS -VXD FRESH AIR. WHY NOT TRY THEM? Arc you a worker? Arc you one of those v. lio arc paying a rout jW twenty or twenty-two shillings per week for a five-rccmed house in Y cllinglon ? Is that house provided with all conveniences, or is it anything more than four plain wails and a roof? Would you like to know where, for a weekly expenditure of ten or eleven shillings, you can rent a house, an up-to-date modern little home? If so, come out to Petono and see what tho Government is doing there. In the Herotaiinga settlement, about eighteen minutes' walk from the railway station, quite a little village of Slate-built dwellings is to be found. There are twenty-eight of them all told, twenty-five having been there for some little time. Tho remaining three are just approaching completion, are, in fact, receiving tho last touches from the painters’ brushes. By tho end of tho week they should be finished and within a fortnight they should bo offered for allocation to would-bo tenants by ballot. It is this trio that a “Times’ reporter wont out to see yesterday afternoon and about which he now wants to tell tho public, that is, tho workers among tho rniblic. It is only a short run to Petono,'and a man who works in town and wants to live out there can buy a special weekly ticket very cheaply. If it can bo shown that rent there is very much less than that demanded in town and that travelling expenses will not by any moans . counterbalance- this, surely he, if he is sensible, will know what to do. NICE LITTLE HOUSES.

Now, about they© three Government houses—workers’ dwellings as they are usually termed. They front on Patrick street and each contains four rooms and all conveniences. Two of them are built of concrete and tho third of wood, the latter being the middle one of the row. Kadi is planned on very much tho same lines and though there are deviations in some minor respects tho actual accommodation provided is identical all through. It was tho wooden house that tho reporter first looked through yesterday in company with Mr W. Tcmjile, the Labour Department’s architect. There is a fairly spacious and welllit hall running down tho centre of the house. On tho right hand side 5s a sitting-room about twelve feet square, with fire-place in tho corner. Opposite to it a bedroom of similar size, which is provided with a wardrobe built into tho wall and a gas stove in tho corner. Back of this room is another bedchamber measuring twelve feet by ten feet, space being left between " tho two for bathroom and lavatory (with hot and cold water laid on) as-well as a built-in wardrobe and linen press. Tho largest room in the house is situated to the rear of the citting-room It is a fine cheery apartment about fifteen feet square and is designed as the living room of tho house. In addition to the ordinary kitchen range with high pressure boiler, it is provided with a large dresser and cupboards in one angle. Off it there is? a scullery which, though not classed as a separate room, really is one. There is in it a washing-up sink with hot and cold water taps, big cupboards, moat safe, shelving and provision for a gas cooker if the tenant cares to put one in. A porch of ample size protects the back door and giro:; covered access (always much appreciated in wet weather) to a washhouse and coal bunker. The washhouse is provided with a copper and two tubs with water laid on. ■ Thus everything is practically under one roof and yet so arranged that the steam from the washtub cannot find its way into tho house. All rooms, save tho scullery, arc entered from tho hall, so that passage through one into tho other is avoided. The height from floor to ceiling is ton foot, Each is well-lit, nicely papered and properly finished off. Gas and hot and cold water are laid on throughout. One of tho chief differences between tho wooden and tho concrete houses is that the sitting-rooms in tho latter have a large bay window at tho side, while in tho former it has two ordinary windows, ono at tho side and the other at the back. Ample ventilation is provided right through under tho floors and close to the ceilings. Tho plans have been so carefully drawn that no space at all has been wasted, cupboards and shelves being built in places that otherwise would not be used.

PLEASING. THOUGH A BIT PLAIN. Externally tho houses arb fairly pleasing to the eyo, though certainly there is no excess of ornamentation. However, even the concrete ones cannot be called really plain, for the large windows all round and a nice porch in front make them look quite cheerful. The wooden house is tho only one to have a verandah. The sections on which they are built each have a frontage of 'forty feet and a depth of one hundred feet. The concrete houses are really the first of tllie kind built by the Department and as such are somewhat in the nature of an experiment. Tho walls arc solid and nine inches thick, while inside they are lined with wood, which takes the scrim and paper. An air space between tho lining and the wall proper prevents the possibility of damp working through on to the paper. The concrete is “tied together” by means of barbed wire, some hundredweights of which are embedded in the walls of each house. As can be imaginedl houses of this material will practically last for ever, for the concrete only gets harder as years go on, whereas wood steadily deteriorates. INTERESTING FIGURES. The houses being almost of the same size_ in every respect made it possible to institute a very exact comparison between the cost of building in wood and concrete, but Hr Temple preferred not to quote figures in this respect just yet. All he would say was that the cost would probably work out at about tho same, but as for maintenance —well there was really no comparison. Take insurance for example. Tho concrete places will be insured at 3s 4d per £IOO, but the charge in the case of tho wooden one may be something like 8s Gd or 9s Gd. As for rents, it was ascertained that the use of these houses will probably ! be granted upon payment of about XOs 3d per week. This sum will in-

“Indo insurance, but excludes local rate> amountin'.': to perhaps Is. widen the Tenant Jn'rnsclf will have io pay. Privately-owned bouses of the* same

dzo and cnuvfimumc probably cost that men in Peicne sue paying Ids t.M pei- week lor plaios that aW-olutcSy will nut bear comparison with the £ talc-owned dwellings. Government, it appears, does not go in for the principle of the private landlord—“get all you cairn but is content with a fair percentage on the capital value of the places it puts up for letting purposes.

Still there is lots of room in the settlement for more houses, severed hundreds of them, but it will depend entirely upon the demand whether more are built. Why should you pay

I .stiff rout in "Wellington, amid all j'fhe .smoke and grime, when for ever 60 much loss you can find a home in purer and fresher air? Here arc just a few figures. A five-roomed house in Wellington, with practically no conveniences and no adjoining land, costs, say, 22s per week. At Potone, a house of similar size, with plont3 r of air space round it, costs 10s 3d per week. To this add 2s, the cost of a special weekly workers’ train ticket, and the total is brought up to 12s 3d. Thus there is a balance of 9s 9d per week in avour of Petono, whore, moreover, a man may rear his family amid healthy surroundings. But, you will say. a man doesn’t want to have to walk that eighteen minutes to his homo after a train journey. There’s something in that, but tho objection could be overcome if . There’s a lino of rails running right past tho settlement from the .petono railway ‘tatiou. Why should not the Government he asked id put on a special carriage for the benefit of its tenants who live in town to run them between their homes and the station? It could easily be done. HOUSES FOR AUCKLANDERS. TWELVE MORE BEING BUILT. Soon there will bo quite a big cluster of State-built workers’ dwellings in the Lawry settlement at Ellorslie, on tho way from Auckland to Onehunga. Already there are nineteen of them, while the foundations of another twelve have just been put in. The now homes will be arranged on similar lines to those at Seddon terrace, Wellington, and at Petono, and, generally speaking, will be up-to-date in every particular. Half of them will bo of four and tho others of five rooms, plus, in every instance, every modern convenience that could reasonably be expected. Under the latter heading will be included bathroom, scullery, wash-house, gas, high pressure hot and cold water service, and so on. Then the sections of land'upon which they are to be built are of ample dimensions, having frontages of about 42ft with depth of 150 ft. It is good land, too, all level and clear. Tho rent to bo. charged will bells 6d per week in the case of tho four-room-ed houses, with another shilling for tho five-roomed places. They will all be practically within a stone’s throw of tho Kllorslio railway station, while each will front on to a well-made road with properly curbed and channelled footways.

“There’s no doubt at all that they will all be taken up readily,” said Mr J. Lomas, tho chief advisory officer for the erection of these dwellings, to a “Times” enquirer yesterday. “In fact I fed sure that wo could lot double the number if they were available, but those twelve are quite enough to put up at one time.” Mr Lomas, accompanied by Mr W. Temple, .tho Labour Department’s architect, was in Auckland last week to supervise tho commencement of tho work and only returned to Wellington on Friday. Tho houses are being built under contract by Mr E. A. HStohings, who also was the contractor for the State-owned dwellings at Christchurch and in Coro rmandcl street.