State Housing In N.Z. Praised By Melbourne Visitor

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 May 1948, Page 7

State Housing In N.Z. Praised By Melbourne Visitor

(P.A.) Auckland, Apri' M. “New Zealand's State houses are of very high standard, probably, I think, the highest in the world," said Mr. Harold Bartlett, of Melbourne, chairman of the architects’ panel of the Victorian Housing Commission, who has returned to Auckland after a three weeks' tour of the State housing schemes in the North and South Islands.

Mr. Bartlett is accompanied by Mr. T. C. Widdop (estates officer), Mr. C. A. Stewart (consulting engineer) and Mr. J. A. Mclntosh (assistant chief engineer of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works). “Auckland being New Zealand’s biggest city has been the most interesting to us from the technical angle,” Mr. Bartlett said. “The Tamaki scheme is similar in size and has some problems similar to some of ours. Our operations are perhaps not quite as big as yours, but we are doing about 3000 houses a year—approximately one quarter of the total housing output in the State. We use more brickwork than is used in New Zealand and also a special concrete house. The standard of State housing here is similar to ours. If anything, ours are a little larger but not quite as well equipped as New Zealand ones. “We were absolutely amazed at the way your engineers have developed sites on very difficult country," Mr. Bartlett added, referring particularly to some of the areas round Wellington. “Many of the settlements are on sites about which we would have to think very carefully because of cost.”

Mr. Bartlett said that site development rather than the actual houses had been his particular interest in