STATE HOUSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 40, 15 January 1938, Page 11

STATE HOUSES

PROGRESS AT AUCKLAND. OVER 100 COMPLETED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Jan. 14. Work on the first contract for the building of 209 houses at Orakei is rapidly nearing completion. Mr N. Burnett, manager of the housing division of the Fletcher Construction Company, stated to-da.v that 115 dwellings are now completed and ready for occupation, and that by the end of this month the remaining 94 will be wea-ther-boarded, bricked up and roofed in. He estimated that approximately 400 men a.ro engaged on the work at Orakei. Under Mr E. Hedley, inspector of Government housing for Auckland, rapid progress is being made in the construction of paths and the laying out of grounds, lnfonnatibn received from the State Advances Corporation reveals tho fact that 22 houses in the settlement have already been taken over by tenants, and indications are that the remainder of those completed will soon be occupied. Already the settlement presents an attractive appearance, owing to the effective contrasts in the colouring or the tiles and the walls of the dwellings. In the treatment of the exterior woodwork and plaster some 46 different colours have been used. Mr Burnett stated that a new contract for 36 houses at Orakei is about to be commenced. Since progress at present is at the rate of ten complete houses'per week, lie estimated the new contract would he finished in the early part of this year. Besides the work at a beginning has been made with the construction of 50 houses on the Casey Estate, Richmond Road, said Mr These are being erected by the Fletcher Construction Company as part of a group to be erected on this sito under the Government housing scheme. The foundation gangs have commenced work on this project, some 80 men being employed.