HOUSING IN LYTTELTON.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18403, 9 June 1925, Page 34

HOUSING IN LYTTELTON.

LOAN TO BE APPLIED FOR. j At last night's meeting of the Lyttolton Borough Council a proposal to provide housing in Lyttelton, was brought a little nearer by the decision of tho Council to apply for a loan of £SOOO, and to set up a committee to go into tho whole question of housing. Pursuant to notice of motion, Or. U. Morris moved "that a committee of four members be. appointed to bring forward a building seiieine, and that an immediate application be made tw the Government ■ for a loan' of £SOOO under the housing scheme." .; Speaking to tno motion, Cr. Morris said at first he intended to move that the Council apply lor £IO,OOO, in case they got less tlian the amount applied tor. out of loans which the Government had raised recently, a certain amount had been allocated for housing purposes. Christchurch and Auckland, had applied for £50,000 each, and a dozen or more boroughs in the North Island had applied tor £IO,OOO, each. As to his reasons for advocating a housing scheme, he would point out that in the last forty years, the population of Lyttelton had decreased between 800.and 400. Since be had beenin Lyttelton he' had seen many tradesmen's shops close, to be, replaced by lollie shops and the like. Young men got married and had to go but of Lyttelton to live. They had only to go down to the trains in the morning, and they would see scores of tradesmen, besides hundreds of arriving 'from the other side of the hill. Thousands of pounds were paid out each week in wages to workers living out of the'port. There were only a' few .houses available in port, and sections were few and far between. It had been stated that every adult living in Lyttelton was worth a pound a week to the tradesmen of the town. His scheme was'to" take advantage of tho reclaimed land just completed outside the inner harbour. •' The Harbour Board had authorised its engineer to draw up a scheme for utilising the land for housing, and that scheme would be presented -to the Board at an early date.' Tlie Board had already given the borough seven acres for.use as » recreation ground The flat, as t it. was called, was actually higher than the parts of the borough, And tha sections would cost little. There was room for 80 or 90 houses to be built, and they would get the sun "all day The scheme he suggested was -'what was known as the WaipukuraU scheme, which had been copied - all over 4he North Island. Tlio principle was that tho.Council secured a.loan from tho Government, and then advanced it to home builders. In JCaiapoi. houses had been built of five rooms and the occupants were paying only £3 19s 6d per month as interest and sinking fund. This did not include the section. If tho Council could get the houses pu£ I up in Lyttelton for the price of those in Kaiapoi, then they could immediately build six or seven out of" the first loan. Cr.' Miller seconded the motion. He said it was well worth -while going into the matter. It would be a good .idea to get tho application in early. ~ Cr. Morris remarked that the Council could not possibly lose, as • the houses were deeded to the Council. Cr. Tpy said there would ho no liarm in going into tho matter, but he conld not understand Cr. Morris suggesting building on the flat. If ho were given a house there he would hot live in it. In some places the housing schemeshad not bern a •success. Cr.* Morris: Where?

. Cr. Toy: Well, that one at Papanui. Cr. Morris: There is not a housio in the Northcote Settlement that is not occupied. Continuing, Cr. Toy said the Government were making tools of the Councils over these 'loans. Tho Councils took all tho vcsponsihilitywand the Government collected the money, and had nothing to worry about. His experience was that people would not live in Lyttelton -if they could help it. As for Cr. Morris's statement that Lyttelton had gone back, that was- nothing to do with housing, but because' people did not Tear such largo" families in these dnvs*. .'.''.■.

Cr. Wales favoured borrowing money for building, but suggested that tho Council could buy land around Corsair Bay way.; Cr. Morris said he was not bound up in the reclamation scheme, but the "mudflat," as people called it, was not nearly so bad as they thought. Cr. Hempstalk said he would support the' motion if there was any real demand for loans for housing.

The motion was carried unanimously, and the following 'committee was set up: The Mavor, and Crs. M-irris, Miller, Hempstalk,> and McDonald.