Housing Figures Establish Dominion Record

Chronicle (Levin), 21 October 1949, Page 7

Housing Figures Establish Dominion Record

Press Association)

(Per ,

WELLINGTON, Oct. 2U. The number of permits issued by local authorities for new permanent dvvellings for the year ended March 31' 1949, was 16,136, said the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, in a statement to the House of Representatives today. This figure, he said, was completely comparabie with aii statistics of buiiding permits previously pubiished by the Government Statistician. It was remarkable for the fact that it was more than 2000 in advance of the previous year's record which had surpassed all previous figures. No transit houses had been included and with public works construction eamps such as Mangakino, only those permanent dwellings constructed by the housing construction branch had been taken into aceount. Mr. Fraser made his statement in futherance of a promise to Mr. C. M. Bowden (Karori) earlier in the cessiou, that he would iook further into the total number of housing units completed in 1948-49. The position Was, he said, that tlie Buiiding Controller requested electric power board3 and suppjy authorities to furnish him witli the number of new dwellings, including State houses, whicli had been connected to supply mains during the year. The Controller had been specific that only new dwellings should be included. New houses built in non-reticulated areas had been added to the returns received, making a toaal of 17,522 new dwelling units. A subsequent check made -in conjunction with the Government Statistician, on the major power authorities, showed that there had been included in the figures a number Of connectious to accommodations whichcould not be strictly interpreted as new houses. These included some beach cottages, some old cottages subdivided into flats which could not rightly be aescribed as new independent living units, and a number of old dwellings connected for the first time to the power supply. The highest annuai total prior to the war was 9711 dwellings in 1938-39 and it was important to note that the rate of increase in post-war buiiding was most inarked in rural housing. The 1948-49 total for rural districts was 5034 eompared with 1618 in 1948-39. The rural district statistics comprised all counties with the exoeption of cer-. tain new urgan counties such ea Makara, jHutt, Eden, Waimairi and Heathcote. *