WHY HOUSES ARE DEAR.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15345, 8 April 1920, Page 2

WHY HOUSES ARE DEAR.

Writes the London correspondent of the ''Evening Post":—The astonishing rise in prices of all sorts and kinds of material used in building and furnishing is succinctly outlined in a memorandum which is to be presented <to Parliament. It shows that the principal building materials in London are two and a-half times higher in price than before the war: — Pre-war. To-day. £ s. d. £ s. d. Kitchen ranges 116 0 7 2 0 White lead (per ton) 29 15 0 75 0 0 Red lead (per ton) 28 10 0 50 0 0 Lead sheet (per ton) 23 0 0 48 0 0 Lead piping (per ton) 23 15 0 48 10 0 Best bricks (per 1000) 116 6 4 16 Slates (per 1200) 1113 0 27 10 0 ■Roofing tiles (per * 1000) 810 0 6 7 6 Yellow deal 22 0 0 55 0 0 Floor boarding (per 100 sq. ft) 015 0 2 2 0 Baths 3 3 0 8 0 0 Cut nails (per .-». ton) • 12 5 0 32 0 0 Turpentine (per gal) 0 210 011 0 The only two items showing less than 100 per" cent, increase are Fletton bricks and Portland stone. Boiled and raw linseed oil show increases varying between 300 and 400 per cent, on prewaV prices.