BUILDING STATISTICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 242, 12 September 1932, Page 6

BUILDING STATISTICS.

Building statistics issued by the Government Statistician reveal the prominent place occupied by Palmerston North in the work undertaken for the year ended on March 31 last. The total value of all permits granted by the local authority was £79,112, an amount exceeded only by the four leading cities and New Plymouth, and by Napier and Hastings where a very large sum is being expended to repair the earthquake damage. New business premises in New Plymouth accounted for £42,530 of its total value of all buildings, £90,905, whereas in this city, in the period under review, an outlay of only £3982 is recorded under this heading. In the matter of new private dwellings, an excellent barometer of a town or city’s progress, Palmerston North, however, was eclipsed only by the four main cities, Christchurch recording 106, Auckland 97, Dunedin 96 and Wellington 95, Palmerston North’s total being 80, a figure that bears an excellent comparison when it is remembered that this city only emerged from its borough status two years ago, and that its population is but a third of Dunedin’s, which is considerably lower than the other three. Again, Wanganui, which exceeds this city in the number of residents, had but four new dwellings added to its total last year, while New Plymouth’s figure was 45, a little more than half of this city’s. Invercargill’s total was 35 and Timaru’s 32. It is very satisfactory to note, in a period of acute financial stringency, that this city should continue to progress on sound lines. The dwellings erected are of a substantial modem type, built on nice sized sections. In this respect Palmerston North is singularly well endowed, for even in the oldest part of the city there is nothing approaching the slum conditions of other cities.