Difficulties Facing Home Construction

Northern Advocate, 15 January 1948, Page 4

Difficulties Facing Home Construction

WELLINGTON, Thu. (SpJ—“lt’s a headache for ' everyone in the business.” said a sympathetic official whose attention was called to Dunedin reports that builders threaten to stop the building of private dwellings owing to lack of materials, Government restrictions and other handicaps. Inquiries in official quarters show that the .South Island is better off for timber supplies than the North Island, but a partcular problem for southern builders is V.iat plywood is manufactured in the North Island and transport difficulties sometimes arise with this, as well as hardwood. NOT GIVING UP HOPE

The housing branch, it was ascerained, has noted no sign of Dunedin builders giving up hope. They are making normal response to the Department’s requests for tenders. As for criticism of trade trainees by a Dunedin builder, an officer of tho trade training section of the Rehabilitation Department said this was not borne out by experience in the building trade in Dunedin or any other part of the country. The answer regarding the qualifications of trade trainees could be given by one of the largest building firms in New Zealand, which has taken a considerable number of these men, principally carpenters, and wants more bf them. ALTERNATIVE METHODS The department prefers to complete training before men go into private employ, but there are sometimes special circumstances, such as the difficulty of a married man attending a trade training school. He is placed with a private builder and his wages subsidised on a sliding scale, commencing with a 50 per cent subsidy in the first year. Trade trainees who have completed their course are employed under supervision erecting state dwellings in many parts of New Zealand. They have completed about 1000, and a similar number are under construction. THE MAIN PROBLEM The building control system, said another official, ,was to ensure that materials were equitably distributed, and houses were highest on the priority list for all materials available. The major problem of the building supply position today, it was ascertained, is in regard to steel and cement.