HOUSING PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 261, 31 July 1919, Page 6

HOUSING PROBLEM

Sir—Permit me to make a !few renarks in connection with the article in four issue of this morning, wherein in stated— 1. That the cheapest quotation given for the smallest five-roomed house built 'in timber) with the utmost economy was £750. . 2. That the cost ot concrete seems to be still a matter for argument. I believe the former statement is correct, hut I can say authoritatively that the latter is wide of the mark. In plain English, be it said, that a five-roomed house, with moderate-sized rooms and usual offices, and with sanitary and other appointments of the first class, can bo erected for .£750. Not only this lint in addition the concrete floors will be finished in wood parqueting ready for polishing. This is not a wild statement, 'but a sober proposition, and such, that will return a very excellent profit to the braider. There is but one reservation, i.e.,'numbers are necessary. A-single house cannot be erected at the figure named. Nevertheless, the houses need not necessarily bo of one pattern, nor in one block or locality. In wooden houses numbers are equally necessary, and this being so, machinery is provided for turning out in immense quantities all the parts necessary in the completion of the ordinary wooden house, as scantling, weatherboards, flooring, etc., for the woodwork, galvanised iron, tilef or slates for roofs, paints, papery and the various other requirements. There; fore let it be clearly understood that it but a tithe of the capital so employed —aye, if but a fraction of that invested in only the wooden parts were employed in providing concrete—concrete fashioned for the replacement of timber of galvanised iron, etc., then complete concret( houses would be made available for genera! use. The cost of the samo not onlj would not exceed that of the house buiH with first-class timber, but would bi less, and if large orders wore forthcom. ing, then much less. At the same eosi there is no doubt as to which would bt the cheaper and better house. The hen* ing question is an urgent necessity. II becomes more acute as the months mss •V great deal is said and written aboul it—to no purpose. In concrete, it is_ i proposition offering good returns for m vestment. It is essentially an industry suited to the private capitalist. Bu why beat the air? Does it not seem re ma'rkable that in the City of Wellington a city favoured bv nature with mater jals for building in concrete, and wit! a ready demand for the finished product that private canital will not move to reni ,a Tich harvest'?- Why don't the peoph help themselves and each other and di something? I am willing to help—l am CtC '' M. DE MONTALK, F.N.Z.I.A. July 30;