CIVIC PRIDE

Evening Star, Issue 22444, 15 September 1936, Page 12

CIVIC PRIDE

HOUSING EXPERIMENTS UNWELCOME NO SHORTAGE IN 11 GARDEN SUBURB ” [Pier United Press Association.! WELLINGTON, September 15. While expressing sympathy with the Government in its efforts to solve the housing shortage problem in the Dominion, the Lower Hutt Borough Council made it plain that it wanted no “ niass production ” houses in “ the garden suburb of New Zealand,” and that there was, in fact, no housing shortage at all in Lower Hutt. Mainly on these grounds, and also on the ground that the Government had been rushed into its announced housing scheme without sufficient consideration or proper advice, the council refused to pass a motion pledging it to co-operate with the Government. NO ONE PATTERN TYPE REAL HOMES PROMISED [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 15. “ The Mayor of Lower Hutt may rest assured that the Government is going to do nothing that will spoil his garden suburb,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) to-day _ when commenting on a discussion 'in the Lower Hutt Borough Council, where fears were expressed that the Government’s housing scheme, will result in the appearance of monotonous rows of mass-produced houses. ‘‘We are not going to inflict anything on Lower Hutt or on anybody else, but we are going to build houses,” said Mr Savage. “ The houses we will build will be real homes, and nobody will be able to point at them and say, ‘They are Government houses.’ We are not going to build houses according to one pattern. The Government will also see to it that the section on which bouses are built will be large enough to enable the people living in them to have a decent garden.” When invited to comment regarding the payment of rates on State-owned houses, the Minister of Finance (Mr Nash) said he had made the point quite clear when moving the second reading of the State Advances Corporation Bill in the House on May 28 last. He then stated: “ Our proposals provide for rates to be paid to a local authority when a house is let, so that, in respect of properties of which the State is the mortgagee in possession, or of which the State is the agent for the mortgagor, that are let at _ ordinary rentals, full rates will be paid to the local authorities concerned.”.