Perhaps, but the British must have at least thought vehicles this size had a market — a 1930 Austin 7 van.

Part of a OIA request Response from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is below.

Rather oddly, it doesn’t want to identify how many each of the owners (itself and the Salvation Army) of 1-bedroom, 4-bedroom and 5-bedroom units have in Kapiti.

Neither does it want to provide a breakdown of where these units are in each of the four main areas.

The KCDC in contrast is quite happy to detail what it has on its website here.

On the other hand, a question we needed to ask the Ministry because of the KCDC’s secrecy was:

Has the Ministry been invited by the Kapiti Coast District Council to buy any of the social housing units it owns, and if so where and how many?

An earlier Response received:

The Ministry has not been approached by the Kapiti Coast District Council to purchase its housing portfolio.

So there you have it: if the KCDC is looking at selling its social housing, it’s not to the MHUD.

The MHUD also told us in the earlier response:

The Public Housing Plan 2018-2022 sets out the intentions for acquiring public housing throughout New Zealand for the next four years. The Public Housing Plan currently states that the Ministry is looking to acquire 40 additional units in the Kapiti region — this is an estimate [our emphasis – Eds], with the actual volumes dependent on changes in housing demand and other relevant factors. The Ministry’s intention is for this document to be updated and published annually, mid-year, following the Government’s Budget process. Each annual update will contain updated information about the number of additional public housing places being sought, based on what has been secured in the pipeline and to reflect any changes in national and regional demand, and funding availability. The Public Housing Plan can be found here: https://hud.cwp.govt.nz/community-and-public-housing/increasing-public-housing/

“S” = “we’re not telling you”, however, the combined total of 4 and 5-bedroom houses must be 8.

That’s what we were told over the weekend by someone who ought to know.

Last month the government announced that it had committed to funding the refurbishment of KiwiRail’s 30-year-old+ electric locomotives on the North Island Main Trunk line between Palmerston North and Te Rapa (Hamilton), providing additional capacity for rail freight growth.

Meanwhile last month, another 15 of the recent DL class diesel-electric locomotives arrived from Dalian in China, making a total of 63 of them.

In 2016, the Green Party, which is now a government coalition partner, announced that its policy was to electrify the railway between Waikanae and Palmerston North at a cost of about $300 million.

One technical problem is that the Wellington suburban train system was electrified as from 1938 in 1500 Volt DC.  The North Island Main Trunk, and the Auckland suburban system, are in 25 kV AC, so trains running from Palmerston North to Wellington would need to be dual system.  This is actually quite common in Europe where different systems exist, although the cost of dual system locomotives/power cars is a little higher than single system ones.

The GWRC has made clear its interest in extending the electric wires from Waikanae to Otaki, but one problem it has proclaimed is that the existing electric units aren’t equipped with toilets and it does not believe passengers could wait an extra 12 minutes for their comfort needs. Accordingly, new electric multiple units equipped with them would be needed for the Kapiti line.

It seems to us, if the government does electrify south from Palmerston North in 25 kV AC, that Otaki rather than Waikanae is a better system changeover point.  Otaki station has spare sidings in its yard, Waikanae doesn’t.

Well, almost — there are still a few trees around the sculpture garden which is in the process of having the basin and the statues cleaned.

Nga Manu.

The name of these roses in the Waikanae War Memorial Garden.