RAILWAY SETTLEMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4732, 1 August 1924, Page 3

RAILWAY SETTLEMENT.

ERECTING THE HOUSES. local work proceeding. The work at the site o£ the new railway settlement on the Aorangi Block, off Thames Road, Paeroa, is progressing satisfactorily. Already one of the cottages is almost completed, and twelve wash-houses and lavatories combined are erected. It is expected that no less than twelve cottages will be completed ready for occupation before the end of this year. Mr W. E. Jones is in charge of the erection of the cottages, with Mr A. H. Moon as foreman of works. ■An official connected with the scheme has expressed the opinion that the site chosen in Paeroa for the settlement is one of the best that he hae yet seen selected by the Government. Despite the fact .that the houses are all cut to length and standard size at the factory at Frankton Junction, no two houses standing side by side will be of the same design on the settlement. The interior of the cottages will be almost identical, but exteriorally they will be changed by variations in the roofe and gables. The limber that is being used in construction is of good quality, highly finished, and the whole of it has been through the drying kilns at Frankton Junction. .At the present time some ten carpenters are employed on the site, as well as a couple of painters, who have their work cut out to keep pace with the carpenters. It is expected that a further gang of twelve men will arrive on the scene next week. Once the material is on the ground it has been proved that four men can build a house within three weeks ready for occupation. Some idea of the magnitude of the task that is being undertaken can be gathered from the fact that no-less than 34,000 bricks and 500 fire-bricks are required for the chimneys of the twelve cottages. Delay and considerable inconvenience is being caused through the bad state of Aorangi Road, leading from Thames Road to the settlement. Although only a short strip is in such a bad condition as to make the cartage of the timber and bricks , to the site difficult, the liability of, rej airing it appears to be nobody’s business, and progress on the settlement is being somewhat impeded as a consequence. Yesterday an official of the Thames Valley' Power Board was on the site, marking off the lines for the supply of electricity to the cottages. The Railway Department has its own staff of plumbers, drainlayers, and painters, as well as the carpenters. A visit to the growing settlement reveals a s cene of great industry, the noise of many hammers at work being deafening. A noticeable feature is the almost total absence of carpenters’ chips, shavings, and sawdust. A saw i; scarcely used, every part of the house having been cut exactly to measurement before leaving the factory. There is almost an entire abf ence of planes. As one of the wprk-y-en remarked, “Give me a hammer, a box of nails, a chisel, rule, and spade, hud I can do the rest.” Such is the simplicity to which the department has reduced building.