COST OF HOUSE-BUILDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19156, 23 October 1925, Page 9

COST OF HOUSE-BUILDING.

Sir, —I see that the carpenters' and joiners' delegates aro out for a new award, with an advocate who coolly asks for higher wages and shorter hours. When is this thing going to stop ? It is evident to any thinking person that trados unions have already so increased the cost of home-building since 1914, that housing has now become the greatest charge on a person's income instead of being, as it used to be, a necessary expense, small in comparison to the cost of food and clothing. The war is supposed to be over years ago, and it appears to me that to commence another round of rises in wages for less work, by increasing the cost of building, is to he compared to a kitten chasing its own tail, with a probable chance of a scratch for any other kitten who joins in the pastime. The builders appears mostly to blame. They seem to be hypnotised by the methods employed, or does the desire for peace soften the backbone of an association which has a duty to perform to the general public, by keeping down the cost of home-build-ing as much as possible and in not passing it on ? One of the worst features of extraordinary high wages in the building trade is the number of amateur erections of small buildings which goes on, owing to the inability to afford the cost oi union labour. You can see theni anywhere if you get out of the city; also, you can see the poor finish in the painting of many houses, done by the owner himseit to save cost of skilled men. In the outer suburbs half the buildings are unfinished and the painting is ihe work of amateurs. . The ultimate result will be that every man becomes his own builder, and the country will los© its onc©-prosp<srotis jutd. settled appearance, &c££3» Bolper.