HAMILTON'S YEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 301, 20 December 1928, Page 8

HAMILTON'S YEAR.

BUILDING SLUMP SHOWN.

REVIVAL EXPECTED

HEALTH FIGURES LOW.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. The value of buildings for which erection permits were issued in Hamilton in the year just closing is loss than last year's figure by nearly one-half. The new structures represented a total value of £35,060, against £60,175 the previous year. They compare badly with the boom years, when in one twelvemonthly period the figures topped the quarter of a million sterling mark. The coming .year, however, promises well in the building trade, for already plans are out for new buildings to cost over £100,000. The nfijority of these will be commenced early in the new year. The health of the borough has been remarkably good, although the cases of notifiable disease are up nearly 50 per cent as compared with 1927. This i 9 not saying a great deal, however, for Hamilton last year was, according to Government statistics, the healthiest town in the Dominion. There were only 59 cases notified, while this year there have been 94 cases. The increase is due largely to an outbreak of scarlet fever. The total for a town with a population of over 17,000 is, however, very low and the borough can congratulate itself on the low percentage.

The past year at the Waikato Hospital was one of steady progress. There were many improvements and additions to the buildings and plant. The chief structural alteration was the erection of a two-storeyed building containing two new wards. All the other wards were; modernised and the equipment added to. With the average daily number of patients standing at 260, and with an aggregate of approximately 2000 operations performed during the year, Waikato Hospital now ranks as fourth largest in the Dominion.

Hamilton Fire Brigade has been looking well after the interests of the property owners. During the year 55 calls were received, the value of the property endangered being £31,853. The total loss was kept down to £3673, thanks to the brigade's excellent work. The greatest piece of work performed by the brigade was in checking the disastrous outbreak at the Horahora power station, when by its midnight dash "over a tortuous road it managed to curtail the Government's loss by many thousands sterling and saved the Waikato from being without power, for an indefinite period.