Talking to the walls : a state house oral history project

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to interview original tenants of the state housing scheme in Naenae. These residents had moved in to recently completed homes that were constructed between 1939 and 1945 as part of a new residential and light industrial district having a final population of about twenty thousand people and was designed in the town planning section of the Department of Housing Construction. This scheme resulted from the Labour Governments 1935 pledge to make provision for adequate housing in order to alleviate some of the problems caused by the housing shortage experienced at that time. I looked at the newsreels that were used as promotional material for the State Housing scheme in the early 1940's and found the houses were described as ' part of a carefully planned boomtown, with every house fitting into the layout of an attractive and convenient suburb'. 'Housing At The Hutt', Weekly Review, Compilation 9, Basis 688, 1945. These houses were built in response to 'the tremendous housing shortage 'State Houses in New Zealand', Documentary produced by Public Works Department for the Housing construction Department, 1942. At this point photos were shown of very poor housing conditions as 'evidence of the crying need (for houses) ibid. State houses were described as having 'both comfort and convenience as the objective'. State Houses in New Zealand', Documentary produced by Public Works Department for the Housing construction Department, 1942. Innovations in the joinery were shown with a woman working in her well-stocked kitchen which had well filled inbuilt cupboards implying abundance and a sunny lounge with a large lounge suite, side tables and radiogram, and showing a mother talking with her toddler.