RAILWAY SETTLEMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4778, 19 November 1924, Page 3

RAILWAY SETTLEMENT.

SUBSTANTIAL HOUSES. NEARING COMPLETION. Passers along the Thames road have noted the steady progress made in the construction of the houses at the railway settlement near the racecourse. The department secured enough land for about 50 or 60 workmen’s homes, but at present only 15 houses are being built, seven of which are now finished and the other eight in various stages of progress. A start was made last July, but wet weather during the winter decayed operations, but the work will be finished early in January. An average of about six men have been engaged ' right throughout, The whole of the werk has been done by the architectural. branch of the Railway Department except the electric light and brick-laying, which were done by First-class timber has been used, and the houses are fitted with conveniences, including double light in pailour, built-in cupboards, linen press, hot-water cupboards, hot-point, light in wash-house, and blinds for all the windows, Including the washhouse. The houses are all of five rooms. - but there are five exterior designs. Three of the buildings are “' bigger than the others, and are of different design and more after the bungalow pattern, with casement windows, and the front door opens into a room instead of a passage. A wardrobe is also built into one of the bedrooms. and a safe is made in the bacx wall of these three bigger houses. An attempt has been made to relieve any monotony by intermingling the designs. The sections are all 66ft by 165 ft, and there is plenty of room for ' a flower. garden in the front and a - vegetable plot at the back. The dimensions of the rooms of four of the designs are as follows: Parlour, 14ft 6in x 12ft; bedrooms, lift x 10ft Bin, lift x Bft 4in, and lift x Bft 6in; living room, 16ft 6in x 13ft; scullery, Bft 4in x sft sin; bath-room, 4ft 9ia 4in; wash-house, 7ft x Bft 4in, ■-All these rooms, including washhouse, are under the one roof, on a 9ft 6,in stud, the main building being 27ft 6in square, with a 17ft x Bft 6io . lean-tc at the back, A coal-shed L also provided outside. In the bigger houses the size of the rooms is as follows ; Parlour 14ft x 12ft 6in; two bedrooms 14ft x 10ft 6in, and one lift x Bft 3in; bath-room, 7ft 6in x 4ft 9in; lavatory, 7ft 6in x 3ft 3in ; scullery, sft 3in x 7ft 6in ; kitchen, 17ft 6in x lift; wash-house, 7it x lift. The wash-house is partitioned for a coal house. -The rooms are* nicely papered and finished, with concrete kerbs, colonial grate in one room, and a hot-water and range in the kitchen, and y beading for pictures round the walls. Building felt has been placed inside the weather-boarding, and the lining boards are all tongue-groved. The weather-boarding and flooring are of heart matai and and heart rimii. The timber is cut and . the length marked £ each piece, with initials of the room for which it is intended, It »s estimated that there are 25,060 pieces in one house. By having a central, factory at Frank.ton.it is evident that mufch time is saved in measuring and cutting. A start has been made with the fencing of the pactions, and when finished the houses will compare favourably with any privately constructed place, and they are a credit to the foreman in charge, Mr T. A. Valentine, and his staff of workmen. .