MODEL MAORI VILLAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 14

MODEL MAORI VILLAGE

WHAKAREWAREWA SCHEME MR. R. B. HAMMOND APPOINTED In 1926 a Royal Commission reported that it was desirable that model villages should be established at Whakarewarewa and Ohinemutu. in the Rotorua district. The Government has now appointed Mr. R. B. Hammond, who was until recently director of town planning, to prepare plans for a village close to Whakarewarewa. Standing on a gentle slope behind the present village, and overlooking the lake, the new village will combine native and modern systems of planning. A meeting-house, with an open space in front of it, will be provided, and it is hoped that instead of the usual unpleasantly ugly srhall cottages and huts of the present villages, something may be evolved combining the best architectural features of both Maori and European buildings. It is not intended that the existing village of Whakarewarewa should be displaced, but rather that a site should be laid out on which houses of an approved pattern can be built as they become necessary, to relieve crowding in the old village. It is hoped that the Government will consent to bear part of the cost of building the new type of cottage. Mr. Hammond will leave Auckland next week in order to meet the Minister of Native Affairs, Sir Apirana Ngata. at Whakarewarewa, and discuss the plan with him actually on th* site of the proposed village.