‘STOP-START INDUSTRY

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 16

‘STOP-START INDUSTRY

Complaints By Builders (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 19. The New Zealand building industry was leading a “Stopstart existence" with a boom one year and a marked decline the next, said Mr L J. Daley, retiring president of the Auckland Master Builders’ Association at the annual meeting tonight.

“How can a builder engage in long-term planning when he has no way of estimating the likely volume of work to be available, say, two years ahead?" Mr Daley asked. So much building in New Zealand was dependent either directly or indirectly on Government finance that any change in the national economy was immediately reflected in building activity. It was not for nothing that the industry was referred to as the barometer of the national economy. Not only was it one of the largest employers of manpower but a considerable portion of the secondary manufacturing industry was dependent for the bulk of its sales of materials and goods on the level of building activity. A report from the executive committee said that building permits for new homes and flats, issued in metropolitan Auckland in the 16 months up to July last, remained almost stationary compared with the previous 16 months.

Permits for commercial building in the 12 months up to March 31 declined from £15,716,000 for the previous 12 months to £13.426.000.