UNPRECEDENTED BUILDING ACTIVITY AT ALEXANDRA

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28153, 17 December 1956, Page 20

UNPRECEDENTED BUILDING ACTIVITY AT ALEXANDRA

DUNEDIN, December 16. Alexandra at present is experiencing a building boom without precedent in its 94 years’ history. A few days ago the Alexandra War Memorial Community Centre was opened to the public —a massive building, attached to the Carnegie Library. It took more than two years to complete, and cost about £70,000. Another costly building project was the modernisation and enlargement of one of the town’s three hotels. The sum involved in this job was about £40,000 apart from furnishings. A kindergarten and a scout hall have also been recently opened. All these buildings have been erected by local contractors, though in the case of the community centre a Dunedin firm was working in cooperation with an Alexandra builder. A firm with headquarters in Christchurch and Wellington has the main contract for the building of the £250.000 bridge that will span the Clutha beside the historic stone piered suspension bridge which it will replace. A further major work is the erection of the new Dunstan Hospital additions and the nurses’ home. Dunedin contractors have been on this job for more than two years, and they have m?'de excellent progress. This is a major building operation, the total cost involved being about £250,000. Other building jobs of a public nature include the new police station a nd residence, and additions to the nremises of the Ministry of Works. The latter job is in progress, but the police premises are now completed. The building boom is seen on the domestic level in the number of houses unde’’ construction, apart from those that have been completed within the last 12 months. About 40 houses are being built now. with permits issued for a dozen more. They are of brick, sun-dried brick, concrete block, roughcast on wire netting, and sidings. Few

are being built for less than £3OOO and some cost up to £5OOO. During the last 12 months a score of houses have been completed in and around Alexandra, and are now occupied.

This building activity is keeping a large number of men employed. The town is very largely dependent upon the building trade and its related trades for its prosperity. There are about 20 builders in Alexandra, with five more in Clyde, a few miles away, who regularly do work in the town.

A few of are one-man concerns, but the majority employ labour. One builder employs about 15 men, and another 10: yet others have three or four men working for them. The subsidiary trades are not so well represented, and the plumbers and bricklayers are working to capacity.