PRICE OF BRICKS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3043, 2 April 1917, Page 4

PRICE OF BRICKS

4 . ' —- RISE OF ss. PER 1000.

The price of building has already ad l * vanced considerably in the last .tro. and a half years, and consequently, there .has been a fcig drop^—m' : sojeg' parts an entire cessation in building activity in Now Zealand. . Wellington, has; been, considerably affected, du£N riot nearly so much as in the south* for example; where building work io stated to be pretty well at a standstill-. Thanks to. tbo centralisation of the 1 " camps, Wellington has been! kept vers? muon, alive, Rnd building of a residential character is still aotive in certain) parts in spits of the extra cost. The position is,- .however, to •_ be mada rather more aoute, for, it is understood, that from to-day, the price of bricks is to be raised by sb. per 1000, which will make the price £3 ss. per 1000—a record price, as far as Wei-' lington is concerned. It is not .. soj many years ago since bricks coujd be bought for £2 per 10D0, but as suitable olav has become scaroe (and what there is has to bo carted from varying distances), aud the cost of labour lias increased, the -briokmakers have found it necessary to increase the price from time to time, until tho present shortage of suitable labour for brickworks is one of the present difficulties.

Private M. B. Breeze, who was for- 1 merly on tlie staff of the ''Westj.Coast! Times, M Hokitika, is now engaged as al linotype operator at British Headquarters "somewhere in Fraftce ; " He writes that quite 3 large staff is employed iu the business of printing tho orders which are; issued daily.

■ Lieutenant-Commander A. J. K< Ban - , owing to an accident iwKich occurred eoine nine months ago, has now as unfit for further-active service. Mr. Barr was an officer in the U.S.S. Company, and left New Zealand on business for the company, arriving in London shortly after the war broke out. He, obtained a passport for Antwerp, where private business took him, and later he escaped from that town with his wife and family afc the .time of the bombardment-. After many .trying and sad experiences he reached London. When hack into harness again he was appointed ;as chief officer of the Cunard liner Saxoma. Later he joined the R.N.R... and was made lieut.-commander of a flotilla of shipsi His mother lives in Dunedin.

The annual picnic of the combined staffs of The Dominion was held • at Day's Bay on Saturday, and was enjoyed to > tilt? full in spite of the blustering weather- conditions. A number of raoes for the various departments were decided, the office championship ■being won by H. B. Wright, with Richardson in second place. Special attention Wfis devoted to tlis oniWrcn in too matter of races, toys, etc.