COST OF CEMENT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20094, 25 November 1930, Page 15

COST OF CEMENT.

MUNICIPAL WORKS SUGGESTED. A proposal to establish municipal .cement works with a vjgw to reducing the cost of that commodity to bodies came before the City Council last night in the shape of a report from thp Water Supply and Works Committee. The report wa§ as follows:—The City Engineer has submitted a report of the proceedings of a /conference of local body engineei-s held in Wellington recently for the purpose of considering proposals of the Municipal Association to establish municipal cement works in order to permit of tjie purchase of cheap cement for permanent ronding. After the matter had been fully discussed, a resolution wa« carried expressing the opinion that bei'org deciding to consider further tfie establishpient of a municipal cement-production works, other methods of bringing about a substantial reduction ifi selling price should be investigated, ijnd, with this end in v-tpw. the has been recommended jo ascertain from local bodies the qujjntjties of Portland cement which they purchased during the last thrne financial yeans.. Upqn thfse figures being made available, and failing satisfactory arrangements being made with tho cement companies to supply cement at prices satisfactory to (qc'sl authorities, the Association has been further recommended to : take steps to negotiate for the procuring of cement from other sources. The question of devising a system whereby loral bodies could co-operate and purchase their requirements to the best advantage tras also submitted to the conference by the Association, but it was decided that unless some general was fixed for the majority of the articles required by the municipalities, ho system could be inaugurated whereby local bodies would co-operate in a central purchasing system. The conference therefore recommends the Association tq set ur an Engineering Standards Committee for thfe purpose tf adopting a system of standardisation. The report was adapted.