Description: Severe housing shortages in the 1930s resulted in local government being mandated to conduct 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 areasA team of 20 temporary staff began surveying in April 1937 with completion by December 1937. 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: satisfactoryYellow: unsatisfactory but repairs practicablePurple: unsatisfactory and repairs considered to be economically unjustifiedBrown: overcrowding of bedroom accommodationGreen: 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.For more information please visit WCC's Archives Online.https://archivesonline.wcc.govt.nz/nodes/view/2003