STATE HOUSING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 8

STATE HOUSING

AUSTRALIAN IMPRESSED P.A. WELLINGTON, Apl. 17. “1 consider New Zealand is leading the world in siting its houses,” said the Director of Construction for the Victoria Housing Commission, Mr Harold Bartlett, in an interview' today. Mr Bartlett is the leader of a delegation from the Victoria Housing Commisson studying New Zealand housing with particular reference to the development of sites for housing construction. His greatest impression of New Zealand’s housing scheme was the way in which hilly sites had been developed, said Mr Bartlett, and considerable ingenuity had been displayed in this respect. Mr Bartlett described the New Zealand Housing Department as one of the most complete set-ups he knew of and said that he was impressed by the high standard of its housing. “ Equipment such as hot water services fitted in your houses compares more than favourably with our own housing schemes, though we are hindered to some extent by lack of materials.” He considered rammed earth houses were not suitable for construction in cities because of the large amount of labour involved. They were very suitable for districts where little skilled labour was available and where the cost of carting other building materials was high.