WORKERS' HOMES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1920, Page 3

WORKERS' HOMES.

SCHEME FOR STRATFORD. BOROUGH COUNCIL ACTION'. (Own Correspondent) . Stratford, Last Night. The question 0f workers' dwellings was before the Borough Council at its meeting to-night. "The Town Clerk reported:—ln conformity with instructions received from the Council I have the honor to submit my report on the above question.

"I have received from the Labor Department plans and specifications of various types of houses suitable for workera' dwellings, of which Nos. 24 and 2-5 are the latest type. The cost of building in concrete is, approximately, £BSO for N0.24,.£950t0 £IOOO for No. 25. Wooden house would be. £IOO cheaper. In any case the cost of the smaller house, together with the land, would not be less than £BSO. The annual cost to the purchaser of a house of the type mentioned, where provision is made for repayment of loan, would be as follows: Interest of sinking fund, £59 10s; rates (say), £6; insurance (say), £3; total £6B 10s, or, say, approximately £7O. "The maximum amount the Government will lend in any one year is £IO,OOO, and presuming it was decided to adopt a housing scheme the Council could only nrovide, say, eleven or twelve houses at the outside. It is questionable whether, so far as the provision for the Council's own employees is concerned, it would be wise to build houses on the lines mentioned, as the annual cost would be more than the men could afford" The Town Clerk further reported that he had placed the scheme before some of the Council's workmen and they said that the houses would cost more thin .they could afford. With regard to these men the best way in which the Council could assist them would be to select fairly cheap houses, and lend them the money with which to buy.them. The Mayor moved that a committee consisting of Crs, Cameron, Jackson, and the mover be set up to call for applications from worker* for houses according to plans 24 and 25, costing from £BSO to £IOOO, and further that the dwellings be erected as fast as possible on the Council's own property. The" motion was seconded by Cr. Hunter and carried.