COUNTY BUILDING RULE CONFIRMED: SOME OBJECTIONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 68, 23 March 1949, Page 5

COUNTY BUILDING RULE CONFIRMED: SOME OBJECTIONS

By confirmation of the minutes of its last monthly meeting, the Whakatane County Council yesterday established a, by-law placing certain restrictions on buildings used or intended to be used for human habitation in the county, and also controlling drainage which, though not required to be done by registered plumbers in all cases must be up to County requirements.

Objections to the proposal were •dealt with at a special meeting before the general meeting. There "were two letters of protest, and Mr It. W. Dunning, president of the Bay of Plenty Sub-Province of the Auckland Province of Federated Farmers, appeared in support of one of them. While he was prepared to agree that certain restrictions might be necessary in built up areas, or areas likely to become built up areas, Mr

Dunning warned the Council it ✓" should watch that it did not restrict the farmer too much as there were, in his organisation’s opinion, <quite enough restrictions in force now. He quoted cases where some Counties had brought in restrictions that had had to be borne heavily by farmers, and asked the County "to inform the ratepayers fully concerning the proposals before they were finally adopted. In reply the chairman of the ■'Council, Mr J. L. Burnett, said the -Council had given the matter a lot •of thought and, as all its members were farmers, it could hardly be expected to do anything that would hinder farmers in any way. But, taking the broad view, the Council did feel that there should be some control over building in the County, ■especially dwellings, and the intention of the new by-law was to assist farmers in that only better class materials would be permitted in tsuch buildings. It was certainly not the Coun-

cil’s intention to place further re- » strictions on farmers, who had quite enough to grapple with at present. The regulations being adopted were intended to assure that new houses 'erected would be • a credit to the whole County, but it was not intended to involve farmers in any unnecessary expense. Cr R. C. Leslie thought there was a bit too much talk about inspectors invading farms. After all, what inspectors did they ever see? —Only the Dairy Board instructor •and the noxious weeds inspector. “Personally I am glad to see them,” he went on. “I have done my job, and if every other farmer has 'done the same, he has no cause to worry about inspectors. Anyway, most people build only one house in a lifetime, so they needn’t see much of the County building inspector. Objections to these regulations come mostly from men, but I think if women had their say it "would be a vastly different story.”