RAPID BUILDING

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIII, Issue 6024, 23 September 1946, Page 2

RAPID BUILDING

SMART WORK BY NEW ZEALAND TRADESMEN An example of the speed with which construction work was carried out for the American forces in 1942 was given in the report of the Commissioner of Works, recently presented to Parliament. The Cornwall Hospital, comprising 122 buildings, with a floor area of eight acres and a capacity of 1500 patients, was begun in October, 1942, and patients were being admitted 1G weeks later.

The report says that the CommGssioner of Defence Construction received little notice of the decision to base American forces in the Dominion, and during the winter of 1942, when the weather was consistently bad, he had to transform bare paddocks into drained, watered, and roaded camps, complete with huts, cook-houses, canteens, and stores in a little over six weeks.