STATE HOUSING PLAN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19374, 12 July 1937, Page 12

STATE HOUSING PLAN

ADDRESS BY MR. LEE PLEA FOR UNMARRIED - Addressing the Institute, of Public Administration in Wellington last night, Mr. J. A Lee, under-secretary in charge of housing, said that the erection of houses by the Government was simply an extension of what had been done by the State for' many years. , •: •• , Many people mistakenly thought, he said, that the housing work of the Government was a new development, that the State had never been interested in housing, and that private enterprise had solved the housing requirements of New Zealand. It had no.t been so for a long time, however. Since 1926 the State Advances Depart ment had supervised the construction of three out of every four of the houses built. When the State embarked on the building of houses it was only extending the sphere of that department. - ' After the war| when thousands'of survivors returned, there was a' distressing shortage of houses. The. Gov, ernment thought the best way was to pour out thousands of pounds through the State” Advances Department. People were sent out into 1 the market to compete with each other. The result was a great expansion of the land agency business, the costs of which were paid by those building houses. The cutting up of land . became -so profitable and popular that aboiit. the towns land had been subdivided into a great many sections and provided with services unnecessarily. Also, that scheme did not result in the best type of house. “Farming” of Rooms Mr. Lee praised the ability and devotion to duty of the Dominion’s public servants.

Mr. Lee’s speech was briefly discussed. One of the speakers, who said his work brought him face to face with housing, said there was-a great need in Wellington, with its many unmarried public servants, for small flats in mutiple dwellings, as well as for single houses. At present rooms were farmed out by tenants who did < not give service but were only interested in obtaining a rent, which was one of the worst features of the situation., If large buildings were erected containing flats of two rooms with kitchenette and' conveniences, it would help td overcome the housing difficulty, in Wellington, at least. He suggested also that a block of four dwellings would be cheaper than single houses, the spreading of habitations with the long services involved being one of the factors in the high cost of living. ■ Commenting that there was something in what the speaker had said, Mr. Lee remarked that some of the more central areas should be i redesigned and then there would be a case for the type of building that had been mentioned. The task was not the most important before them.