BUILDING CONTROL

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1946, Page 9

BUILDING CONTROL

EMPLOYERS PROTEST AT PRIORITY SYSTEM EFFECT ON SERVICEMEN (P.A.) DUNEDIN, July 30. Before the war the average time to construct a house was three months. 'To-day it takes from nine months to a year. Already bui defied by the problem of dwindling materials, builders now have to contend with a system of priorities in the distribution of almost everything which goes into the erection of a residence.

This, system came in for some pointed criticism by members of the Otago Master Builders’ Association at "a meeting yesterday afternoon and the opinion was expressed that within a month the operation of this latest Government edict would cause widespread unemployment in the building; trade. The priority system gives first call on materials to returned servicemen trainees engaged in the construction of Government houses and the point was made that established builders could construct much more quickly than men learning their trade, and during this period it was not economic "for the Government to employ them. What was left of the materials alter priorities had been served would be so small that the returned servicemen who had completed the course and been absorbed into the trade would have to be put off by the private builder. The latter was placed last in the priorities, though in. many cases he was erecting homes for servicemen and also employing them.