NEED FOR STUDY OF HOUSING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 10

NEED FOR STUDY OF HOUSING PROBLEMS

Architects’ Views Stated

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE COMMUNITY Tiie problem of housing, becoming more and more a vital factor in the economic life, is beginning to cause some stir in the community, says the “Journal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects.” From time to timelhe institute has made some endeavour as give a measure of guidance In endeavouring to find a way out of the impasse : but its efforts have usually been treated with coldness and self-suffi-ciency on the part of officialdom, and its offers of adviee and assistance have not been accepted by those in more responsible quarters. Whereas, in the sphere!of necessities of life, the operation of supply and demand may be shown to govern, to a great extent, tlie cost 'of such continuing needs as food and clothlug, in the case of housing, on account of its relative permanency, the operation of supply and dem.and is not only slower but more complex: for in it are involved not only building costs, bjitland values, rating and taxation, the availability of capital and the interest rate —ali bf which take greater t z ime to adjust themselves to the level of normality. Commodities are a problem of the present: housing brings in its trail the problems of the future.

It is not this difficulty of envisaging the future which tends to direct our energies to dealing with the problems of the living present in the hope that by doing so the future may be able to solve its own problems? This is surely the case with? housing. There is not one person in the community who will agree that the majority of buildings which we call houses are really efficient.''' r ■' - - \

If we really devoted ourselves as a community to as conscientious organisation of our housing as of our more modern ventures of electrical development this world would be happier, better and wealthier. But no! it is too humdrum, we must' develop the railway, the electric tramway, the telephone and the radio and leave the old house to look after itself—or to provide us with as much return as w-e can get. It is the duty of the Government, we have thought in the past—it is to be hoped we do not still do so —to provide facilities wherewith any citizen who has a modicum of capital may' have a house of his own, without due regard to what the house is costing or without adequate provisions to ensure that it is intrinsically a good house or that it is in the right position. In short, there has been no system of co-ordinating the effort, j The result has been that the money made available by the Government with the best intent, has been a happy huntingground for the speculator in land and those who'benefit' by excessive cost of building labour and material.

One of the basic needs to enable the co-ordination of effort is in putting into effect of zoning ordinances. Both Government and municipal authorities birk at this and dispense with townplanning officials on (it would seem) the plea of economy. But it is probable that there is more in it than this; it is difficult —but it would be courageous—to pull the beam out of one’s own eye before removing rhe mote from the eye of another. . .

WTien we get a true and generally felt desire for a systeiii'atic review -of our housing needs, there will be the necessity for a very careful investigation of the problem by those most able to do so —and, after that, tlie courage and public spirit which are essential if such plan is to be nut into practice.