COST OF COTTAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 13

COST OF COTTAGES

AVERAGE PRICE OF £166 BUILT BY PUBLIC WORKS REPLY MADE TO CRITICS The view expressed by Mr. J. W. Graham, president of the Federated Builders and Contractors' Association, that houses erected to develop the 10acre farm scheme should have been built by private firms instead of by the State was replied to yesterday by the district engineer of the Public Works Department Mr. F. S. Dyson. So far from it being true, he said, that "private enterprise is still the cheapest and most efficient way of carrying out all building and constructional work," as Mr. Graham contended, departmental experience in the Auckland district was that private enterprise was the mast expensive. When the Public Works Department was called upon to supply cottages for the 10-acre farm scheme, the first thing done was to call for tenders. Quotations were obtained from four different contracting firms. No. 1 firm quoted £136 lis 6d a cottage for material only, free on rail, Hamilton; No. 2 firm quoted £159 a cottage, material only; No. 1 firm's quotation for the supply of materials and timber in sections at Hamilton was £168; No. 2 firm's quotation for a similar order was £173 8s; No. 3 firm quoted £l9l for the supply and erection of a cottage, excluding the cost of cartage; No. 4 firm quoted £l6l 5s for the supply and erection of a cottage, excluding cartage and freight and painters' labour.

"We were far from satisfied with these tenders," said the engineer, "and we arranged to carry out the work ourselves. We erected a cottage 7£ miles from Te Awamutu at a total cost of £167 6s 3d, which price included the necessary superyision. Another cottage, 4£ miles from Kiwitahi, was built and erected at a total cost of £163 15s 3d. We built another house, two miles from Taupaki, for £154 10s.

"About five months after we had called for tenders for the erection of two cottages at Taupaki we received 10 public tenders from well-known builders of Auckland, whose prices ranged from £169 to £250 a cottage. We declined them all on the ground that they were too high, and erected the cottages ourselves at a total cost, including expenses of supervision, of £153 lis 8d a cottage. "So far, we have built 86 cottages in connection with the small-farm scheme in the Auckland district, and the average price a cottage works out at £166 16s. At that price we erected many of tne cottages after they had been carted many hundreds of miles, over all kinds of roads, some of them having to bo transported by bullock waggon. In each case the erection was supervised by a competent officer, whose expenses are included' in the price." Mr. Dyson 6aid the idea that the department purchased its materials and paid for its labour in the dearest market was erroneous. The low building costs which the department showed were obtained by competitive quotations. Thus materials were - purchased by obtaining quotations from the millers and merchants, transport charges were lowered by accepting the lowest tender of all the carters in the districts concerned, and labour was engaged on a system of petty contract with local builders.