SECURING HOMES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1920, Page 9

SECURING HOMES.

PUBLIC UTILITY SOCIETIES. London, Jlav fi. Not long ago Lord Onslow sold, for .€.",8.000, CtC acres of land to a public utility society, with a view to the formation of a garden village alongside the famous Surrey chalk ridge known as the Bog's Back. Mr. V. Litchfield, one of the projectors of Hampstead Garden Suburb, is Die head of the scheme, and with him on (he committee, of management are Lord Onslow and Mr. Henry Powell. Lord Onslow has invested 1'20,000-iii the enterprise, and the Corporation of Guildford loans another £20,000, while the Government in making a loan for fifty years of three-fourths of the cost of the houses. The Government, too, will pay one-third of the annual loan charges during that time, while the industrial concerns which are to be established on the site, the tenants of the houses, and the public, will all,have their share. Five years hence the society hopes to have the village complete with 1000 hous»s or more. There are to be only fire houses to the acre. Ninety-six acre's will be occupied by churches, institutes and hostels, but there will be no public-houses. Fifty acres will be reserved for recreation grounds and woods. Two hundred houses are to be ready by September, 1021. On Saturday the foundation stones of two houses, one by Lady Onslow and one by Mr. H. A. Powell. Lady Onslow said'she had lived for many years next door to the garden city at Hampstead, and she could speak from personal experience of the groat benefit of these schemes to those who spent the days in towns and came home to pure air and healthy surroundings in the evening. A luncheon wm given by Lord Onslow on the occasion, and local children braided the. maypole. Guildford was the first municipality to 'mplete workmen's dwellings under Dr. .'..ldison's schemes, and it is the home of a large number of other movements, which have spread throughout the country and made good. In this case the new garden village, which will be brought into being, will have a, greater air space than any other building arrS in the country. Three hundred acres will be set apart for small holdings and allotments. It is ultimately intended to sell part of the land for the erection of houses of a more pretentious type, so that the village will be practically a self-con-tained community, while the tenants will be encouraged to take their fair share in the government of Guildford, bv the fact (hut fJhcy will have to pay 'their own rates direct to the local authority.