WCC, City Engineer and Surveyor's Office, Housing Survey maps

Descriptive Data

Archives Identifier00515Date Range1937DescriptionThis series contains maps of the central city giving results of the 1937 housing survey carried out by the Wellington City Council.

As a result of severe housing shortages in the 1930s local authorities were required by Government to carry out housing surveys identifying housing conditions, the number of houses it was necessary to replace, and the extent of new construction required. The Housing Survey Act (1935) required Borough Councils and Town Boards to carry out a survey of the whole of its district (or only a portion if approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs), recording

· Existing dwellings and numbers of rooms
· Physical condition of dwellings
· Number of persons and age/sex in each dwelling
· Owners and occupiers, and rents charged for rental properties
· The extent of overcrowding
· The population densities of residential areas

Local authorities were given the power to enter and inspect dwellings or to require occupiers to provide written details. The final surveys were to be submitted to the Minister of Internal Affairs.

In 1936 Housing Survey Regulations were produced, along with survey procedure and tabulation instructions, to help local authorities carry out surveys. The Housing Survey Regulations under the Housing Survey Act (1935) were gazetted on the 3 December 1936. These regulations gave local bodies until 15 January 1937 to submit an application to the Minister of Internal Affairs of a 'defined area' which they proposed to survey.

The Wellington City Council (WCC) initially proposed only to survey part of Te Aro and Thorndon. Their application was refused in January 1937, and subsequently boundaries were agreed to covering the area within the original city boundary, with some slight adjustments to capture areas of Kelburn, Wadestown, Mitchelltown and the whole of Oriental Bay. A proviso required the Council to survey any isolated house or houses outside the City boundary which the Council had knowledge of as being in unsatisfactory condition.

Work on the survey began in April 1937. 20 temporary staff were employed through the Government Employment Bureau and began surveying properties on 13 May 1937. The survey of the agreed area was completed and the returns required by Government forwarded in October 1937.As a result of the value of information collected in the initial survey, the project was expanded in September 1937 to include all suburban areas. Survey work was completed in December 1937, and statistics and reporting information completed in February 1938. A report on the survey was produced in March 1938.

Results were tabulated on cards (one per property), and information for the central city mapped onto a set of 1:500 footprint sheets. Each residential building was coloured and given a plan reference number as required by the regulations. The colouring denotes the following information about the building conditions:

Pink: satisfactory
Yellow: unsatisfactory but repairs practicable
Purple: unsatisfactory and repairs considered to be economically unjustified
Brown: overcrowding of bedroom accommodation
Green: apartment houses containing dwelling units not self-contained and provided with separate conveniences and kitchens (this information was collected by Council even though it was outside the Regulations)

Standard 40-inch (1:500 scale) footprint maps were used, indexed by their 40-inch sheet number. The plan numbers were allocated by District as a single running number sequence. For example Berhampore is covered by plans 1-821, Newtown 1-1906, Mt Cook 1-1362 and so on.

There were a number of key outcomes as a result of the survey. The WCC Housing Committee recommended in November 1937 that power be given to the Council to require owners of existing buildings to carry out alterations needed to avoid overcrowding in accordance with Housing Survey Standards. This work was subsidised by the Government. The Council also recommended that legislation be enacted to allow money to be borrowed from the Government for carrying out road, water and sewerage services for Council lands to be made available for housing.

The maps were originally held in the City Engineers Department. With the shift to the new Civic Administration Building in 1990 a large number of plans (including this series) were transferred from the Civil Design Branch to the Alexander Turnbull Library as no storage space was available made in the new building.

There are a number of ways to access the maps. A specific street can be searched in Archives online. Town acre numbers have also been included, although legal descriptions for suburban areas have not been recorded. Each item has its 1:500 scale map number as well, allowing comparison with the Thomas Ward survey maps (Series 00514), 1:500 sheets and aerial photographs.MediumPlanSystem of ArrangementNumber sequence within folders [Original sheets numerical 40 inch (1:500) footprint sheet numbers]Collection TypeWellington City Council

Access Information

Restriction StatusOpen

Related Agencies

Controlling/Creating AgencyCity Engineer and Surveyor's OfficeRelationship Date Range1899-1923

Related Series

Related SeriesPredecessor SeriesControlling Series