£115,785 BILL FOR WOOL STORES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22426, 5 September 1947, Page 4

£115,785 BILL FOR WOOL STORES

GISBORNE CENTRE DISTRICT SAVING £IOO,OOO REDUCTION CONTINUED EMPLOYMENT Seventy men are now working close to the business area of Gisborne on wool stores which will provide continuous employment for more than 200 seasonal employees. These additions to the accommodation of Gisborne’s wool stores will cost five companies £115,785.

The establishment of Gisborne as a wool soiling centre will not only ensure continued seasonal employment for a large number of bread-winners, but will mean an estimated saving of at least £IOO,OOO annually to Gisborne and the East Coast in transport, labour and brokerage charges. The transport bill alone will be cut by £30,000

Gisborne is one of the largest wool-producing districts in the Dominion, when the size of tin; area is considered. Within a 35-mile radius of the new centre 13,000 bales of wool are produced annually, and Gisborne and the East Coast combined provide an annual clip of 57,000 bales.

Although there are only 70 men working on the Gisborne store jobs at present, the contractors expect that number to be increased within the next two weeks, providing the carpenters are available.

Supplies have been coming to hand in sufficient quantities, although some difficulty has been experienced in securing adequate supplies of metal for concreting. There has been no serious hitch in the work, but there have been a few delays caused by adverse weather. The timber used in the construction of the stores is mostly Oregon, which does not affect the building of dwellings. Corrugated asbestos will be utilised largely for roofing—the industrial super-six size of a heavy weight not used for dwellings. Individual Building Costs

The following permits have been issued by the Gisborne Borough Council to date:

Gisborne Sheepfarmers’ Frozen Meat and Mercantile Company, Limited, contractor. D. Glengarry and Company, Limited, Gisborne and Wairoa. —Rangi street store, £58,000. Dalgety and Company, Limited, G. Douglas, Gisborne.—Pitt street store, £16,500. Williams and Kettle, Limited, Faulkner Construction Company, Limited, ■ Napier. Awapuni road store, £28,785. N.Z. Loan and Meracntile Agency Company, Limited, G- Templeton and Son, Wellington.—Grey street store, £6500. New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., D. Glengarry and Company, Ltd., Gisborne and Wairoa.—Grey street store, £6OOO.

In the construction worlr to date Gisborne labour has been employed solely, with one or two exceptions where key men have been brought to Gisborne by

contracting firms with their headquarters outside the district. Building a store extension with a floor space of 61,000 square feet, the Gisborne Sheepfarmers’ Company has undertaken the largest job in the district and it will cost just half of the total outlay of the five companies enumerated. By the end of the week it is expected to have four of the roofing bays covered with corrugated asbestos and some areas of the extensive walls already have been covered with sheet asbestos. That will be one-quarter of the roofing job, Roof To Take 2600 Sheets About 200 tons of structural steel have been used in the new store, and over 100,000 feet of Oregon. The walls will be covered with 1000 sheets of asbestosThere will be a tremendous weight in the roof, which will take 2600 sheets of corrugated asbestos, as Well as many of the 1600 panes of glass to be used in the structure for essential lighting. Ample provision has had to be made for storm-water collected by such an extensive roof. To cope with this there will be 300 ft. of 6in. drain-pipes and 400 ft. of 9in. drain-pipes. The 3000 ft. iof guttering will be of malthoidbitumen. I A start will be made on the concretj ing of the floor within two weeks and | the Gin. layer-, together with foundai tions already in place, will take up | about 300 tons of cement and from ! 1500 to 2000 cubic yards of sand and i shingle. The flooring will be one of the biggest jobs in the construction of the store. Steady progress also has been made with the construction of the new store being erected in Pitt street by Dalgety and Company. The building has an Bft. concrete wall on three sides, on to which the wooden framing is built to take the main walls. Another two weeks will see the concreting work finished. Until now 25 cubic yards of Motuhora metal chips have been used daily in the concreting. Most of the required materials are now on the job. Provision is made for a further extension to the store at a later dateAwapuni Activity The second-largest extension is that being carried out by Williams and Kettle, Limited, in Awapuni road, the floor-space of their new accommodation being 29,500 square feet. The wall framing has been completed and an early start is to be made with the lining and roofing. One-third of the floor space already has been concreted and the contractor reported today that the work had been proceeding remarkably well. As is the case with the other stores, the industrial-weight corrugated asbestos will be used as the roofing material. A start has been made with the boxing for the foundations of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company’s extension in Grey street, and in a short time it is expected to have the job well under way. The other small extension, to be undertaken by the New Zealand Shipping Company on behalf of dePelichet, McLeod and Company, Limited, in Grey street, will be commenced shortly. The site has been levelled adjacent to the existing store and some of the materials have arrived. Work to be carried out in the store of Common, Shelton and Company, Limited, is not in the nature of an extension, although the strengthening of the single-storey building will provide for the construction of a second storey to the building if and when requiredThe reconstruction to be undertaken will give the existing building the desired lighting required by the buyers fot their inspection of the wool.