MAORI HOUSING

Te Ao Hou, March 1960, Page 18

MAORI HOUSING The New Zealand Government has three schemes for helping its citizens to be housed: the State Rental houses, the loans for urban housing by the State Advances Corporation and the loans granted by the Department of Maori Affairs. The total devoted to housing from these three schemes was £34 million for the year 1958–9. Of this sum Maori Affairs spent a little over £1.3 million, while a further contribution of unknown size was made to Maori urban housing from State Housing and State Advances Corporation loans. Until recently the Maori housing programme was limited because Maori families found it hard to save the money they needed over and above the limit the Government could lend them. Today, with the capitalization of the family benefit, a considerable waiting list for houses has been built up. One of the great difficulties in Maori housing is the lack of suitable building sections in the towns and cities. The Maori leaders also thought that Departmental housing plans should keep up more with the important new development in low-cost hous- Plan of the Rosenberg House. ing design. A plan for a Maori house by Mr G. Rosenberg, lecturer at the Auckland School of Architecture, was discussed in detail and approved by delegates as typical of the sort of design the Maori housing scheme should offer. The Department of Maori Affairs subseqeuntly commissioned Mr Rosenberg to draw two plans similar to the one discussed, for inclusion in the Plan Service. It will be interesting to see whether many Maori applicants will really choose these contemporary houses. If so, the way is open to far greater variety in Maori housing designs.