Playground progressing
Work of clearing the piece of ground adjoining the St. Clair Surf Club’s house for a children’s playground has been commenced. Several tree stumps have to be taken out, and a certain amount of levelling has to be done before the chutes, swings, and see-saws, can be erected. There is about half an acre in this section, and when completed it should prove a great attraction for the children.
Two more sleeps
The usual number of Friday night "shoppers" was multiplied last night. The streets were crowded from about 7.30 p.m. by people making Christmas purchases, and also by those who were there to "see the fun." Despite strenuous efforts on the part of the police, the rule of "keep to the left" was not observed, and jostling was inevitable. The crowd was good-natured, however, and not even the pranks of the children and the childishly inclined who threw Russian bombs at the feet of those seeking their way through the throngs were resented.
No place like home
The building industry, and all the other trades and industries that depend on it, have had a flourishing year. The activity set in from January last, when some 80 permits were issued by the City Corporation, and since then there has been a steady briskness in the whole of the trade.
Building sections have been in great demand, for the greatest part of the activity is concentrated in the provision of housing. In the more thickly-populated centres and suburbs there are few unoccupied spaces remaining, and the result has been a drift towards the outlying districts of Anderson’s Bay and Sunshine.
The increase in building may be in part attributed to the easier prices that prevailed early in the year.
Then building probably appealed to many people as the most desirable way of housing themselves, for high rents and very high prices for existing houses — not to mention an insecurity of tenure for many tenants — did not conduce to a satisfactory condition of life. Consequently there were those who decided that the chance of the cost of building falling was more than off-set by the prevailing conditions. Following them came the builders and others with capital who secured choice sections, erected houses rapidly, and turned them over at a profit of £100 or so to the people who (for want of a better term) are known as the workers. Many of those who seized upon the opportunity in the provision of homes for the people have every reason to feel satisfied with the return from their outlay, and, at the same time, they had the satisfaction (if they thought of it) of contributing materially to the solution of a problem that had assumed unsettling proportions and that was detrimental to the welfare of the wage-earners.
The Government legislation of last session, by which the advances under the Advances to Workers Act were increased to a maximum of 95 per cent, of the cost of the dwelling, played a big part in stimulating and sustaining the industry — ODT, 23.12.1923
