BUILDING MATERIALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 6

BUILDING MATERIALS

SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES IN PRICE COMPARISON WITH 1939 Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, Nov. 25. Since 1939 the price of cement has increased from £4 4s to £5 7s a ton, corrugated iron roofing has risen from £32 to £6O 12s 6d a ton, and builders’ hardware from the United Kingdom has increased by 85 per cent., while builders’ hardware from Australia has increased by 30 per cent. These figures were given in a return tabled in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Nordmeyer. Other examples of cost increases since 1939 were: Reinforcing steel— United Kingdom supplies, from £lB 10s to £4B a ton; Australian supplies, from £lB to £l9 10s a ton; lead sheet, pipes and traps, £43 to £ll7 a ton; bricks, from works in Wellington, from £5 17s 6d to £7 5s 4d per 1000. Timber prices in the Auckland district were given as being representative, and the return quoted the following increases:—Scantlings, according to grade, between 8s 8d and 11? 3d per 100 feet; flooring and weatherboarding, between 7s lid and 10s 8d per 100 feet; finished lines—O.B., 8s lid; heart, 7s 8d; match lining, between 5s 2d and 8s Bd.