BUILDING COSTS VARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18519, 2 October 1923, Page 8

BUILDING COSTS VARY.

STATISTICS FOR SCHOOLS.

HIGHER JN NORTH ISLAND.

CONTRIBUTORY ; FACTORS. [Si. TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] ~',., ' '. CHRTSTCHTTR'CH. Monday. " At the conference of education :. boards he*d in Wellington ; there;!; were some interesting discussions on ': the relative cost of buildings 'in various ' parts ') of the Dominion. ■': Mr. % J.' G. -; Kirk, 'assistantsecretary of tha Canterbury Education Board, has drawn ';; up a graph, showing the cost 7 of building schools ;• for '■■-, each square foot of floor space allowed 1 in the different districts. ' v The cost in bricks a square foot for the Inst two years in the various districts is as follows :—Canterbury, 18s lOd : , Wanganui, 19s; Otago, 20s; Southland,. 21s 9d; Tnranaki, 23s 3d; Hawke's Bay, 255; Auckland, 26s ; Wellington, 29s lOd. There have been, no brick buildings creeled during the last two years in the Nelson district. ; '' .. In wood the cost is as follows: — Nelson, 13s 8d; Wangamii, : 14s; Tarancki, 14s 3d Canterbury. l-1s lid;. Otago, - 15s Id; Auckland, 17s; Wellington, 18s lid; Hawko's Bay, 19s. There have, been no buildings erected •in wood in' the Southland district for the two years. * The- Minister for Education, the Hon. C. J. Parr, is anxious to discover tho reason for the variance in price. In Canterbury district all labour is paid for by the day, but in Wellington the work is done by contract. Also, many of the committees of the North ' Island' provide for ornate buildings,: thereby-., increasing the expenditure. The building expense is -not the same in all the centres. For instance, in Wellington sometimes the hill has to be cub away in order to got "a level foundation. But, apart from the local disadvantages, there seems to be a great gap between the price paid for day labour and the contract price. .:■■■•;