BRITISH ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1926, Page 14

BRITISH ROADS.

MADE FROM FOREIGN STONE. j> PLIGHT OF CEMENT TRADE. j } For some time past the building trade I in Britain has been concerned at the ' increasing strength of foreign competi--3 tion in the supply of cement, bricks and • tiles. Attention has now been drawn ' to the tendency to use foreign hewn r stone for the making of British road 3. r In the case of imports of foreign 1 bricks, the total rose from less than 1 £18,000 in 1923 to over f450,000 in 19'i5; * in that of tiles, from £93.000 to nearly >r £430,000; and in that o fforeign cement, 1 from £395,000 to £540,000. Last year 1 the value of imported bricke and tiles j was in each case doubled. j 3 The editor of the "Builders' Mer-' s chants' Journal" quoted recently the case r of a company in the Liverpool district v which has over two million bricks lying 1 idle at Carnavon. This stock according ■' to the chairman of the company, could j s readily be sold in Lancashire but for 1 the cost of rail transport. As it is it ' could only be disposed of at something " below cost price. V The plight of the cement trade is " similarly unsatisfactory. Because of "• the foreign cement which is coming into the country, large numbers of cement r workers in the Thames and Medway area s are out of employment. Last year the ' imports in eleven months were over ■ 200,000 tons, the manufacture of which i 1 amount on this side of the Channel would have given work to 1000 men, and in addition would have necessitated the placing of orders for 100,000 tons of t coal. Commenting on these facts, "The I Times" says: —''In some' cases it appears that this harmful introduction of foreign t cement is directly due to the action jl of local authorities. It has been stated by Mr. T. E. Smith, a prominent official I of the National Joint' Industrial Council of the industry, that certain towns, including Portsmouth and Chester, buy foreign cement for their public works; [' that the 'London County Council used '' Belgian cement for the "construction of I the London-Southend Road: and that j s the Corporation of Middlesbrough were : only prevented from following tlie same policy by the veto of the Ministry of Transport and the Unemployment Grants ' Committee. According to a recent official ■' statement the use of British-made bricks is always specified in contracts made by c the Office of Works. It is difficult to see why this salutary rule should not be I ' followed by all public bodies. If the! -Ministry of Transport can veto a contract contemplated by one corporation, is there any good reason why it should not be able to exercise the same power in all similar cases? Additional evidence' of the need for more rigid control is supplied by Sir Cooper Rawson's allega- ! tions with regard to the quarrvin*! '• industry. More than 200,000 tons of granite macadam are, he w-rites, imported i annually into this country from France and Belgium for use on' British roads, t- At the same time large and important 3S quarries in Scotland, Wales, Westmoreie land, Devonshire, Leicestershire and the lg Channel Islands are working short time re because of the lack of orders."