PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18403, 9 June 1925, Page 5

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

WHAT IT HAS DONE AT ARAPUNI. (SPECIAL TO "THE PRKSS.") AUCKLAND, Juno 8. Arapuni itself is now a little town. Its population' is about 600 (says the "Herald")- Some 300 hands are on the contracting company's pay-roll, man}' of course working on a co-operative basis, in addition to the permanent village which contains 19 excellent houses and a splendid hostel for the accommodation of the large staff which the Public Works Department must keep on tho job. There are two camps, one above tho dam site and one alongside the village, each with over 30 temporary houses and barracks for single men, those in one camp having accommodation f(.r 100 men and those ,in the other for 150. These are camps in name only. Nothing so ■ comfortable has ever been provided for workers in the wilderness in this country. The outside walls of tho buildings "are of corrugated iron, but internally they are as sound as an ordinary "cottage. Each building has electric light and water, and has modern sewerage. When tho large concrete reservoir now in hand is completed, water pressure will be adequate for fire fighting. The barracks are steam heated, and beside them is a concrete floored bath house, with a hot and cold shower room, where clothing can be washed, and a drying room. The sanitation of the camp is perfect. "Eoughiug it" is not known at Arapuni. The streets are metalled, and baby goes out for his ride in his gocart just as comfortably as in an Auckland suburb;, more comfortably than in some. Three births, it might be mentioned, have taken place in the township. A permanent school, built to accommodate 30 to 40 children, has now a roll of-80. There is a splendid hall—built at the contractors' expense and better equipped\than many a hall in country towns —at which pictures are shown twice weekly, under an arrangement that limits the price of admission to otic shilling. A bungalow has been fitted up a3 a hospital under the charge of a nurse. For hospital treatment and medical attention, under an arrangement with the local Medical Association, the men pay a levy of one .shilling a week. The Plunket Society has been established and a nurse visits the mothers.

Social life is quite arduous. There is even an Orphans' Club. The works canteen is a large store run under conditions which require goods to be sold at' Hamilton, prices. This business includes a butchery and a bakery, which turns out all classes of confectionery and small goods. A cobbler's shop' is equipped with all mechanical appliances, run by electricity.

"There are sports grounds and cricket, tennis and football clubs. ' And now a boxing club has broken out. All this is none months' work. It is staggering, but it is private enterprise in bold hands.