RECORD YEAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27277, 31 December 1949, Page 6

RECORD YEAR

BUILDING IN AUCKLAND TERMITE PEST INCREASING Daily Times Special Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 29. All previous records for the cost oi new building in Auckland were exceeded during the past year, says the city engineer, Mr A. J. Dickson, in a review of engineering activities foi 1949. Prices had continued to rise over the past 12 months, he says, but noi as much as in past years. The average cost of a dwelling in Auckland was now £2270 compared with £2030 in 1948, £IB2O in 1947 and £l6lO in 1946, Mr Dicksop says. An interesting comparison was that the average cost of a house in 1933 was £725.

A total of 2824 building permits, representing £2,080,000 worth of work was issued during the year, and that was a new record for Auckland. The last highest year was 1929. when the value was £1,600,000. The further relaxation of controls last month had produced only one noticeable result—there had been an increase in the number of applications for private garages, which had been under severe restrictions for about eight years. The termite pest was still spreading, particularly in the Point Chevalier district, after nine years of control measures, Mr Dickson continues That demonstrated that unless more effective measures than those practised to date were evolved the city must look forward to an ever-increas-ing source of damage to woodei buildings.