LOCAL BUILDING

Evening Star, Issue 23701, 8 October 1940, Page 3

LOCAL BUILDING

MUNICIPAL OPERATIONS SIXTY-OHE MORE FLATS CONSTRUCTED DETAILS IH CITY WARDS The report of the City Corporation for the year concluded last March shows an imposing list of operations which come under the direction of tho; City Building Surveyor. The principal building works carried out by the City Corporation itself make an important addition to construction throughout Dunedin. Apart from this, of course, the figures from tho register kept by the surveyor of other buildings arc interesting. They have previously been dealt with in this column. Corporation works included 19 houses, valued at £21,970; the electricity department building (£15,217) ; new entrances, lift-webs and lifts in the municipal offices (£7.939), an addition to the transport department’s carsheds at Market street (£2,413), the testing station on the Anderson’s Bay road (£2,150), and the second Jloor alterations at the Town Hall (£1,723). Besides these there were renovations at the Art Gallery, repairs to the St. Clair baths and a dwelling at Waipori. Plans were also prepared during the year for entrance porches ami bookstack rooms for the Public Library. Further work by this department during tho year included the inspection of 111 hulls and places for public mootings. About 450 reports were made during the year, dealing with flats, the housing scheme, advertising signs, and general matters. Regarding flats, one block of six had been erected at St. . Clair and 24 dwellings had been converted into 55 others, making a total of 61. An analysis of the building carried out in the various wards shows a steep decline in building in North-east Valley, where the total of new buildings dropped to 44, against 84 in the previous year. Additions remained the same at 54. In Leith ward there were six new buildings (4 in 1939), while additions (49) remained practically the same. The South ward dropped from 58 to 33 new buildings, while alterations here increased from 99 to 110. Mornington showed a similar drop, while the Central, Roslyn, Maori Hill and Anderson’s Bay wards remained about the some. In Roslyu’s case the number of additions dropped from 81 to 44. Any one of a number of conditions might have affected these results. The incidence of Government bousing and the attraction a group of such bouses lias for intending purchasers of land possibly have the most influence. Thus Roslyn has easily the largest yearly increase in recent years. It seems surprising, in view of the new northern approach being constructed for tho city, that the Leith ward has not made substantially more progress. It seems a certainty that housing will follow the road, and one might have anticipated that speculative builders and others would anticipate it.