HOUSE BUILDING.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 20 August 1920, Page 4

HOUSE BUILDING.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your correspondent “G.E. ” commences his letter in last issue like Ihe fairy talcs, “Once upon a time.” Advertisements concerning .portable houses have been appearing for a long time past in the Australian papers. It a resident of Otaki imports one where is he going to put it, unless lie owns a section of land. In the good old days j vour correspondent writes of, all immigrants were granted 40 acres of laud by the Government. YVe read nowadays of Chinamen' paying £ls per annum per acre for rent, yet one time Cl 5 per acre was considered a big price to pay for the freehold. 1 have never scon any of these imported houses, but I have seen hundreds of slab houses, paling houses, and houses built completely of aikau, with great chimneys which would be appreciated these cold nights. There is plenty of nikau ami punga within ten miles ■of Ottiki township, so that cheap and comfortable whares could easily be built, but on what laud,’ And would the Town Board by-laws allow a resident to build as cheaply'? How many men of the present day could go into the bush and split palings? The Chinamen scent to overcome the shortage of building material anil cost by utilising old ben- ; zinc tins, and we do not hear of them suffering Ihe prevailing ills of the Europeans. However. 1 draw the line at benzine tins.—f am, etc., ROOT. 1 1 i :