Rural Housing

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 62, 16 March 1944, Page 4

Rural Housing

A grave weakness manifest in housing development of late years has been the concentration of endeavour within urban areas and the comparative, if not almost complete, neglect of housing in the country. For this reason, particular interest attaches to the decision of the Manawatu County Council to provide tor borrowing £IO,OOO to build eight houses for the Use of its staff. The report indicates that the Council intends to build further houses under its rehabilitation scheme. The matter is of more than local interest. Doubtless the county was primarily if not wholely concerned with its own affairs in making such a decision. But at the same time it is serving the national welfare, both within its own area and by the example it provides to other local bodies. Therefore, is the engineer, Mr. H. V. Bond, to be congratulated on the report provided for his Council. Country living has so much to offer the married man with a family. Lower living costs and ideal conditions wherein children may be brought up. The old bogey of isolation and discomfort attaching to rural life will no longer apply in this motorised age and with electricity available throughout the land. The provision of a small area of land with each of the county houses so that the occupants might keep a cow and grow their own vegetables would perfect the scheme. The significance of a rural housing development of this nature lies in the fact that cities the world over have come to depend upon the country to renew their populations.