SAYING OF THOUSANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 216, 11 September 1937, Page 23

SAYING OF THOUSANDS.

APPLICATION OF STANDARDS. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. "I have no doubt that hundreds of thousands of pounds a year could be saved if the principles of standardisation could be applied to our local body purchases and to our building by-laws," said the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, at a conference in Wellington to-day of the New Zealand Standards Institute.

The Minister expressed the opinion that the application of standards to local body requirements would result in a very considerable reduction in the cost of house construction. It was obvious that if local body requirements were standardised so that the same equipment would be used by local bodies and public authorities generally within practical limits, the manufacture of that equipment within the Dominion would be greatly facilitated at a price more advantageous to the purchaser and more satisfactory to the suppliers.

The conference discussed questions relevant to the problem of standardisation of local body by-laws, particularly those related to building construction. It was agreed that the whole of the sections of the building code which could logically be assigned to separate committees of the Standards Institute should l)C so assigned, and the committee instructed to prepare an estimate of the technical assistance required with a' view to the completion of the code within six months.

It was further resolved to recommend to the Government that a grant should be made from the Consolidated Fund for the development of that work.