POST-WAR PLANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1942, Page 4

POST-WAR PLANS

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES IN COUNTRY TOWNS VISUALISED BY MINISTER OF HOUSING. BETTER LIVING & WORKING CONDITIONS. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The possiomry of estaoiishing secondary industries in country towns is visualised by the Housing Minister (Mr H. T. Armstrong) in association with a planned programme of house building after the war. In an interview, Mr Armstrong said the housing programme could be worked in connection with the Government’s policy of fostering secondary industries. Living and working conditions, especially lor families, could be much better in the smaller towns. In some cases transport costs could be reduced by proximity to a source of raw materials and ease of access bj railway. The development of secondary towns on these lines would help to stem the flow of population to xiie large cities. Factory labour recruited from a rural community would retain its contact with the land, providing a valuable safeguard for the farming industry on which this country primarily depends. The development of these towns would enable more of the amenities of a metropolis to be available to a rural community and would further safeguard against the drift to the cities.

Dealing with the State housing programme itself, Mr Armstrong said ihat lor the three immediate post-war years, the construction of 8,000 houses in the first year and 10,000 in each of the next two was under consideration, and he assumed that private building would provide an additional 4,000 houses a year, making 40,000 in all in the three years. He also had in view a more liberal policy of State financing of the private building of residences. He considered that the figures were well below what was desirable, but they represented the maximum possible, taking account of the practicable expansion of the building industry and the claims that would be made on it by other essential building works.

At present, the Minister observed, 1,700 houses were in various stages of construction, and for the balance or the year to March 31, the Department could complete 2,000 houses. The easing of the defence construction programme should enable more permits to he issued for private dwellings, so a fqrther thousand houses should be completed by private enterprise by the ■end of March. He realised that such a programme would be dependent upon the availability of overseas ma•serial The survey looks well ahead. The Minister assumes that by 1957, New Zealand’s population will reach 1,850,000, necessitating a .total house-build; ing programme of 9,400 a year. Land purchasing policy is aimed at being two years ahead of building requirements. To: give effect to the programmes, 8,000 to 9,000 men will be required for the duration of the war, 21,000 in the first post-war year and 24,000 in each of the two subsequent years. The Department, Mr Armstrong stated, had designed a house capable of being built for from £7OO to £BOO. Though smaller than the standard type, it would be convenient and fully equipped, with no waste space. The advantages of prefabrication would be employed in a modified form, suitable to the equipment and organisation of the industry. Farm housing must also receive attention if farming was to absorb its quota of returned Service men. The Department was prepared to undertake the provision of the requisite housing.