BUILDING TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23685, 17 December 1938, Page 24

BUILDING TRADE

ACTIVITY IN DOMINION HIGH COSTS AND WAGES Record levels for cost of materials and value of work done were set up in New Zealand's building and construction work during 1937-38. Though the total number of new buildings erected was not much higher than in 1936-37, the figure being 6057 against 5748, their value rose from £2.387.214 to £3,249,928. These figures, which are contained in the Abstract of Statistics, have been compiled from returns received from builders throughout the Dominion. The number of persons engaged in the industry in 1937-38 was 11,471 compared with 9721 in the previous period and 8346 in 1935-36. Their total wages, at £2,681,493. were £663,669 higher than a year ago, only a small percentage of which went to the few women workers in the industry. Thus the number of persons employed rose in one year by 18 per cent., while wages moved up by 33 per cent. Cost of materials, the heaviest single item faced by the trade, rose by 26 per cent, to £7,096.722; and the value of work done on all constructive work reached £10.422,230, a jump of 28 per cent, from the previous figure of £8,133,847. One of the most interesting features of the returns is that the popularity of five-roomed private dwellings so predominated that the number erected was equal to the combined totals of the four and six-room dwellings. The number of private dwellings was 4042, their value being £3,754,525. Fiveroomed dwellings totalled 1705, four rooms being next in popularity at 1156. There were only 54 private dwellings erected containing nine or more rooms. Auckland is well ahead of the rest of the Dominion in the amount of building done, but Wellington and Dunedin share the distinction of having the highest average value per dwelling. The average value of a fiveroomed house in Wellington was £1053, in Dunedin £IO4O, in Auckland £972, and in Christchurch £876.