BUILDING CRAFTSMEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19532, 13 March 1926, Page 6 (Supplement)

BUILDING CRAFTSMEN

SCARCE IN NEW ZEALAND. A man from Bolton, who is now engaged in a branch of the building trade in New Zealand, on his own account gives an unflattering report of the building trade in the Dominion. In writing to the “Bolton Evening News” he says that the craftsmen is last dying out in New Zealand, and the conscientious man whose chief object is to make a first-class job is apt to be left far behind, and the houses are built by men who are “pigeons of flight.” A fiveroomed bungalow sells for £l4OO, and £l6OO, and legal expenses arc 26 per cent, higher than in England. Timber is very expensive. Finely-finished work is at a discount, and the correspondent adds that one, of the hardest things lot a new arrival in the country is to learn to leave off a lot of the thoroughness which is so essential at Home. “All T can say is that nowadays there appear to be plenty at Home well qualified to succeed in the colonies without unlearning anything.’’