HOW WE BUILT OUR HOMES

Te Ao Hou, October 1958, Page 46

HOW WE BUILT OUR HOMES A Private Housing Scheme near Kaeo, described by C. S. WILLIAMS Some years ago, in an isolated district in Northland, an effort was made to help Maori people to provide homes for themselves better than they lived in previously. In order to conserve the very limited finance upon which they could call, an effort was made to use cheap and locally obtainable material, and to use for the most part unskilled labour. As the work progressed, however, the unskilled labour very soon became skilful for the project in hand. The following story may be of some interest to those Maori people who consider that the financial hurdle incurred on a house built by the Maori Affairs Department or other orthodox methods may be beyond their resources. To repay loans on professionally built houses must require a regular income, which is not always available, and security of title, which is often most difficult to arrange. What were the essential factors in the successful completion of the houses which have been built in this area? 1. The employment of cheap materials, locally available. 2. The necessary money, perhaps £300, to be available over the building period of two years, or less in the case of a relatively skilled man. Skill comes with practice. Enthusiasm must precede the commencement of the work. 3. The utilization of second-hand materials, scorned by the wealthy, such as doors, windows, stoves, sinks, baths, and the other expensive requirements in hardware which bring up the cost of building. It is easily possible with patience, paint, and work to transform old windows, doors and other things into articles of beauty. A window is no less serviceable if it is sound, but old. It probably functions better than some modern contraption with ‘louvres’ and chromium plate—in wet weather anyhow! 4. Patience, careful work, to be undertaken over weekends, on holidays, or between casual seasonal jobs, which are the common lot of working folk in the country. Money must be earned to live. That little extra bit from casual work can easily be spared for essential material for a house. Our experience taught us that for success and easy accomplishment there should be certain desirable conditions. The site must be carefully chosen. What trouble and expense would have been avoided, for instance, if we had sited one house so that a hillside spring could have been tapped for an easy and permanent water supply. A sunny outlook with warmth, a good soil for gardening, a nearby beach, and good road access all make for success. As we grow old riding horses is tedious, if we need to carry flour and other

awkward goods to the site on horseback. Then again, where the house site is not of easy access by road, the costs of transporting timber, heavy hardware, and metal are expensive in money and labour. We first planned to build houses of timber, of which there was an abundance in the communally-owned bush. In the case of one house there were 28 owners to the bush. After many hui on the marae, all were agreed to work the timber, a small mill was set up, and it looked as if all those needing timber would have all they required for building. One of the 28 owners at the last moment changed his mind, and that was the end of the cheap timber.