HOUSING SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 43, 14 November 1919, Page 3

HOUSING SCHEME

CITY COUNCIL'S BUILDING OPERATIONS AT NORTHLAND. Councillor R. A. Wright, chairman of Hho Wellington City Council's - Housing Committee, stated yesterday that one ut the new houses at Northland was well under way, and another to to he skirted immediately. In view of the acute shortage of carpenters and the very high price of timber it lias been suggested t'hat t'lie Government or City Council might consider the ' matter of importing the American sectional house, _\los!i people know by Hie advertisements in magazines how a properly designed and ouite serviceable wooclen bungalow may in America he ordered ono week, delivered the next, and erected by the cud of the. third neck, 'lllie front, hack,, and sides of the houses are made in sections, which can be readily packed, and each par to is numhe.i'cd so as to agree with tlio plan supplied. A' member of the City Council, who be-, lieves that the council is a little beside itself over the housing question, instanced the discussion which took place a fortnight ago. when the Mayor favoured paying the highest rate, in fact anything, so long as they got the carpenters, Councillor IV. 11. 'Bennett), a builder and contractor, uttered a warning against such an extravagant course being pursued, as the wages offered by tfte council would quickly become the wages that would have to bo paid by everyone else employing carpenters,, r.nd that, in tinr.', would be reflected on other trades allied to building. What the councillor 'in opposition) .'ays is that if one_ assumes that every carpenter now in Wellington is fully bmplCyed, what advantage is it to tlio community at largo if he is taken off one job ami put on to another? There mav be something in taking ttie men oil' what may lie considered unessential jobs and put tlipm to build houses, but what is an iinesn.Mitinl building? Today office accommodation in Wellington is at a premium, because the demand has caught up lo the supply. Would, then, an office building be deemed unessential?