Building Materials

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 11, 1 July 1916, Page 661

Building Materials

By R. Whitson.

The Development of the Dominion's Resources.

Possibly the present is not an opportune time to discuss matters relative to building, in fact in travelling from one end of the Dominion to the other this remark has been frequently made to us by many prominent men connected with the building trade, With all due deference however, to the opinions of those who have no doubt carefully thought this matter out, we venture to hold a different and incidentally a broader view of matters as they at present stand. The present war is bringing about some extraordinary changes in the once accepted, settled'

trated on our own resources we should to-day have been in a very much stronger position to carry on our Dominion business with material produced in our own country. The average business man will tell you if you want a thing done to do it yourself, but in the pre-war days of cheap freights, low costs and moderate duties, one never heard the user of imported goods carry the argument to the length of saying ‘ * if you want a thing produced, produce it yourself. ’ ’ It is easy to be wise after an event, and no doubt * hundreds connected with many trades realize this

routine of many lines of business, and it is but natural that we, being at the extreme distance from most of the old world centres and markets at a time whe,n freights are high and scarce, and the production of imported building materials has been reduced to a minimum owing to local conditions in the manufacturing centres, should be among the first to feel the sudden cessation of those supplies that we have in the past depended on. This dependence we are paying for now at a cost out of all proportion to the partial stoppage of our oversea supplies, and the disquieting thing is the knowledge that had time and effort been concen-

now, but the number of building jobs held up at present from north to south of the Dominion, is sufficient justification for the statement that a great deal more could have been done towards developing our natural resources, than has yet been accomplished. We do not for a moment contend that this country is, or could be as yet sufficiently developed to supply all materials necessary for the modern type of building, to do so would be palpably absurd. Such materials as tiles for roofing, glass windows, and ordinary door fittings, are not a commercial possibility yet in New Zealand owing to the price of Dominion labour and raw materials.

"We say a 'commercial' possibility in order that we may not be thought to be belittling the worthy efforts of those industrial pioneers who are, and have been for some time past, endeavouring to produce the three items specified at a price that can compare favourably with the imported equivalent. We know that in the Dominion roofing tiles are made, that glass has been produced, and that certain types of door and sash fasteners are turned out for special requirements/ but the fact that these essentials to building are not, carried in stock by dealers, and that the ' average builder does not know that such goods are or ever have been made in the Dominion,

architectural and building, is a solution of at least some of the difficulties that are holding back big building schemes that cannot be much longer delayed. The situation is one that needs tackling at once, not by the isolated individual here and there who might succeed in supplying his local demand for some one building essential, but by a combination of those bigger men who are suffering from their inability to carry out such work that is offering, owing to the closing of the markets from which they have hitherto drawn their supplies.

It seems to us that a great deal lies in the power

is sufficient indication of the extent to which their :

manufacture has been carried.

Wherein lies the reason of the want of development that some of our building lines, have suffered from.? Is it that oversea costs, were low, freights cheap, and designs superior? Is if that a higher protective tariff has been wanted to encourage local manufacture ? Or is it that the cost of labour and raw material have been prohibitive? We do not attempt to solve a problem that has engaged the best thought of some of our leading manufacturers, but we venture to suggest that the reason will be found in a combination of some of the above suggestions. .What'does concern us deeply as a newspaper whose interests are more or less devoted to matters

of the Master Builders. They are at the moment the greatest. sufferers, for - they are unable to get their usual supplies, and without these supplies at a reasonable price they are unable to tender for any work offering at a price that would make a tender possible of acceptance.

Supposing, as at the moment of writing seems probable, that the' present war conditions, with the corresponding cessation of supplies, exists for another .year, and that trade conditions take still-a further period of eighteen months or two years" to regain their pre-war, status, is it to be imagined for a moment, that in. a progressive and prosperous country such as New Zealand, a country into which, owing to our natural resources, money is at present

flowing at an unprecedented rate, that building in the bigger sense of the word is to remain at a standstill until the world's markets are open to us again. Such a supposition is not tenable, lor the demands of public service and public accommodation are already insistant.

A solution has to be found for the present difficulties, not a "carry-over" or a "hold-back" policy that will see us through the next three years of industrial turmoil, and eventually land us where we were in our pre-war days, a country boasting of its independence as a whole, and yet depending on other countries for the very material of which it builds its houses, but a real solution that will place us further ahead, and make us more independent than we were before our outside supplies were stopped.

Assuming that a certain proportion of important building must proceed within the next three years, even after making mental provision for some of the wealthy public and private concerns that out of pure timidity cancelled work that was already in hand at the latter end of 1914, (and who incidentally will probably pay a good deal more when fresh tenders are called for the same work which has to be eventually carried out) it seems fairly obvious that such work that is completed will have to be built with Dominion produced material.

This is entirely as it should be, though as we previously pointed out some few items must necessarily be excepted. But we contend that such items of import can and should be cut down to an absolute minimum.

Whether the solution of the difficulties lies entirely with the architects, or whether they should be overcome by collaboration of the architects and master-builders is a point that is not essential so long as the end is obtained, but it seems to us that in those buildings that must of necessity be gone on with in the near future, either Dominion produced material must be found to carry out the accepted designs, or else that the designs themselves must be altered to bring them within the scope of the Dominion materials.

Something will undoubtedly have to be sacrificed here and there in design to make possible the building of factories and large buildings under present conditions, but the sooner those interested in building schemes realize that those conditions actually exist, and are not likely to improve in the near future, and also that an impatient public will not wait indefinitely, the sooner will they bestir themselves to overcome or circumvent the real or imaginary difficulties that up to the present have demanded oversea importations for their solution.

We have no intention of itemizing the various materials that have come by use to be deemed more or less essential in the building of to-day, but to illustrate our point consider the position of the market to-day in the matter of steel girders.

For the moment ignoring American girders which are prohibitive even if procurable, it may be said that steel girders and joists are, as far as New Zealand is concerned completely off the market.

Does that mean that given a building that has been originally designed mainly in steel frame, that it cannot be gone on with until steel work is again procurable at something approximating the pre-war figure? To assume that the stoppage of steel supplies has stopped building is surely taking a pretty narrow view of the capabilities of our. Dominion architects, and yet we have heard men with business sense enough to know better, say that they are,unable to go on with various building schemes until they can procure steel girders! .

How many years ago is it that steel girders were put on the market for builders' use, and what did the designing architects employ before their advent A little thought will surely show that these modern aids to building are not absolutely essential, for nobody will contend that magnificent buildings were not put up before the invention of steel girders. In a modified design where the use of steel is necessarily cut out, girder spans may have to be shortened, story posts may have to be increased, and various other sacrifices made, but after all who in abnormal times expects, to build on exactly normal lines? The fact remains that before the use of steel, such buildings were put up, and it can be done again if, as we say, the architects and builders tackle the problem wholeheartedly. We have taken steel as an example because it is most quoted as the present impediment to building schemes, but it is really only indicative of half a dozen building lines that are apparently proving bogeys to those who wish to build.

Looking at file building problem from as broad a viewpoint as* possible the outstanding need would seem to be the encouragement of Dominion resources. Few countries in the world have such wealth of raw material to draw uponpractically nothing is denied us. Coal, iron and cement are found in enormous deposits often side by side to facilitate cheap workingwhile our timber for both indoor and outdoor work, and beauty of marking are world-famed, while if anything further were desired to make our position unique, we have it in the power running to waste in our rivers which is, as yet, practically undeveloped. We needed waking up to our possibilities as a producing country, and we say it with all due honour to those who have already taken the Dominion so far along certain commercial lines, but we contend that for every industry, already safely established on business lines in New Zealand, there are other equal possibilities awaiting development.