NAPIER REHABILITATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 91, 1 April 1932, Page 8

NAPIER REHABILITATION

MONTH’S BUILDING PERMITS. FORWARD MOVE LAUNCHED The building, permits which have been issued in Napier during March reveal the fact that considerable progress has been made in the rehabilitation of the town, the £25,728 5s which is the value of the permits issued being mainly for new works in what has become to be known as the devastated area of the town. Last month’s figures are the highest since September, which was the record month since the earthquake, most of the £59,143 in that month being for the erection of wool stores at Port Ahuriri.

There were only 16 permits issued last month, which might be regarded as a very small number, but most of them were for large amounts and for work either in Hastings, Emerson or Tennyson streets, the three principal business streets of the town. The main works are as follow:—£4150 for the reconditioning of the Empire Hotel at the town end of Shakespeare road, £4OOO for the reconditioning of Parker’s Building in Hastings street, £3170 for new offices and store for Murray, Roberts and Co., Ltd., in Tennyson street, £2780 for new shops for Airs Condon in Hastings street, £2550 for new shop and flats for Airs T. C. Moore in Tennyson street, £2287 for new offices for Hawke’s Bay Permanent Building Society in Tennyson street, £l7Ol for new Commercial Bank premises on Higgins’ estate in Hastings street, £1540 for the reconditioning of the boiler house at the Napier Hospital, £l2OO for new shops for R. Stevens and Sons in Emerson street and £lO3l for a new wooden dwelling for Aliss Walker in Cameron road. The total amount of work for which building permits have been issued in Napier since the earthquake now stands at £368,835. In March of last year the amount of work which was carried out was valued at £23,030, against £25,728 5s during the month just ended, but it must be remembered that the former figure included a very considerable expenditure on buildings of a temporary nature necessary as a result of the earthquake, while in the month just euded the whole of the work is of a permanent nature in the old business area of the town. During January and February of this year the amount which was taken out in permits was comparatively small, as is usually the case following the Christmas and New Year period, and now it seems that the move which has been anticipated for some time past has commenced, while with a very large number of tenders either being called or about to be called for further buildings, the next few months should see a great deal of activity in the building trade and a steady advancement in the rehabilitation of the town on permanent and improved lines.