USE AFTER WAR

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 29, 29 October 1942, Page 4

USE AFTER WAR

Defence Buildings

MINISTER’S SUGGESTION Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, October 28. The idea of combining the establishment of accommodation for defence forces with the post-war settlement of civilian population was advanced by the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Armstrong, after his arrival in Auckland on Tuesday. He said that a practical scheme was needed to ensure that, where defence housing requirements were concerned, everything was based on utility in later days. If such requirements were close to cities, he considered that shells of houses should be erected on suitable sites and completed to house families after the war. They could be constructed up to a certain standard to accommodate. troops in the meantime. There was an increasing demand for accommodation for men, offices and stores, the Minister continued. Everything that could be taken for these purposes in Auckland and Wellington had already been secured. “We have practically come to the limit of taking other people’s places, and now we want to see that buildings still required are built in such a way that they will have utility value after the war,” said Mr. Armstrong. It would lie better to spend a little more money now on buildings which would have a future value than to run tip places that would have to be pulled down when the war was oyer. Uncompleted blocks of bouses in Auckland and 'Wellington could be put into condition to bouse soldiers. The same views applied to storage accommodation. Referring to railway storage plans, Mr. Armstrong sa.d that sheds being erected for war purposes would have a great value after* hostilities ceased.