BUILDER AGAINST FURTHER CURBS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31003, 8 March 1966, Page 1

BUILDER AGAINST FURTHER CURBS

(New Zealand Press Association > lAURANGA, March 7. Fhe logic of extending building control regulations, in view of the building industry’s healthy and unextended state, was questioned by the president of the Master Builders’ Federation, Mr R. G. Alexander, of Napier, today.

Mr Alexander presented his report to the annual conference of the federation and the Federated Builders' and Contractors' Industrial Union of Employers, which opened in Tauranga. “The amount of deferments should not be allowed to grow larger. If it does, a back-log will accumulate which will be dangerous to release,” Mr Alexander said. “We must admit that the amount of deferments is a fluctuating figure—£2,ooo.ooo wer- released at the end of January, and a further £5.000,000 will be released at the end of this month—but the fact remains that there is a jam, and we all know what happens when a log jam breaks or a dam bursts. SECTION STARVED “In addition, this programming starves a section of the industry of the expansion it has a right to expect, and denies the public of amenities for which it is expected to pay.” he said. The building industry was the largest secondary industry in New Zealand, and was governed by the demands of the people. It was restricted, in reality, only by their capacity to meet the costs of their requirements, Mr Alexander said. After commenting on the Government’s machinery for gearing the internal economy to overseas earnings and spending, he said it was not surprising that the Govern-

ment should take steps to stabilise building construction. “But we were rightfully alarmed at the steps so taken in the middle of 1965. Without any reference to the industry. the Budget of last June—inaugurating the Economic Stabilisation Building Construction Regulations—took us back 25 years in no; uncertain manner.”

The building industry had constantly studied building statistics in the last eight months, in an effort either to justify Government control, or to produce evidence in support of a review of the position. Mr Alexander said. With the figures and backed by “solid opinion,” the industry could now say it had a good case for supporting the latter move.