}
to the recreational space. Another quite important improve- ment was to be the provision of communal bathing rooms on the scale of about one to every thirty five domestic rooms. These bathing rooms would have no water laid on but would consist simply of seven partitioned stalls where settlers could take a bath by the bucket and scoop method. A further modification was the conversion of a number of ground-floor rooms into shops measuring 240 square feet in which those who had kept substantial shops could continue in business provided they were able and willing to pay a realistic rent of $100 a month. Other improvements related chiefly to the installation and positioning of electric lighting, the provision of brackets for clothes lines and other minor matters.
41. It has already been emphasized that this is emergency sub-standard accommodation built to meet a serious emergency. But the buildings are necessarily of permanent construction and those responsible for their design had from the start been conscious that the building on a large scale of permanent sub- standard cubicle accommodation would in the long run be likely to prove an embarrassment rather than an asset to the com- munity. To meet this point the buildings were so designed that they could be converted at a later date into orthodox self- contained flats. Each flat would be of about 250 square feet, including a small private balcony, and could probably be let for about $40 a month. There was no way of foreseeing the social and economic developments which would in the future determine how soon and to what extent such conversion could be carried out; but it was considered that this potentiality would ensure that the buildings would always be an asset to the Colony.
42. By the end of the year the Architectural Office of the Public Works Department had produced standard drawings which made it possible to put together working drawings and specifications for a building contract at very short notice. The buildings need not be of the same size but may be varied in size to suit any particular site. Larger buildings require six
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