HOW SYDNEY IS GROWING.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1921, Page 1

HOW SYDNEY IS GROWING.

SYDNEY, Dec. 29

Recollecting the difficulties which have confronted the building trade during the year just closed, by reason of the scarcity of material and the steady advance in prices and wages, one is surprised to learn that the number of new buildings constructed in Sydney, .is nearly 8500 higher than in any year since the war ,and not far short of the number built in 1914, when the trade was at its highest period of prosperity. This is a significant- tribute to the confidence felt in the future of the State, and its capital city. That the cost of the buildings erected in 1920 constitutes a record, over £8,000,000 is not surprising: for the expenses of building have soared tremendously. "Wages alone have gone up from 12s a day to 20k and 25s a day. and the prices of material have ascended to dizzy heights. But the erection of business premises lias been rendered necessary, in spite of these facts, by the increasing expansion of commercial interests. Steadily the face of this spectacular city of tlie Southern Seas has been {■hanged of late years. In every direction one sees that imposing and palatial* business Louses have replaced old dingy structures which, long before they disappeared, were unworthy of the prominent- sites they occupied in the principal streets. In this way, one gazes upon a new and more stately Svdnev.