LEAPING AHEAD

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 426, 6 May 1937, Page 2

LEAPING AHEAD

PALMERSTON NORTH Month’s Building, £61,599 Palmerston North, May 6. Touching the highest level known for seven years, building permits issued by the Palmerston North City Council this month were of a total value of £61,599. Except for a total of £31,167 in June of last year, there has not been any comparable return since 1930. This indication of progress is amply borne out by the large programme of actual building in the city at present and by the number of major structures to be commenced in the near future. The largest permit issued this month was for the new building to be erected in Broadway by the T. and G. Society, at an estimated cost of £46,000. It will be within a few yards of another large insurance office, which was opened last week by Sir Frederick Tout, of Sydney, for the A.M.P. Society. It cost £20,000 to build. Three other new business premises are included in the month’s returns. Square Frontage Changes. Although the value of commercial building authorised this month is greater than the previous year’s total of £51,889, recent months have seen many important new structures erected in the business area. An architect’s opinion that the frontage of ths Square changes every five years is pertinent at present, when building boards obstruct the pavement at three places in the Square. A new’ theatre is at present under construction at a cost of £8500: the Manawatu Evening Standard’s new premises, to be occupied next week, cost £9920; Messrs Collinson and Cunninghame’s are building a new store to cost. £lO,OOO. The most striking trend in the recent period has been the number of new commercial premises built in Broadway, which has changed almost entirely in appearance in a few years. Frontage values have appreciated sharply as a result' This year the city’s diamond jubilee is to be celebrated, and it is probable that the building rate of the past decade, a period in which new buildings of a total value of £1,700,000 were carried out ,js to be accelerated as a token of celebration. Building and allied trades do not fear any lessening of the present prosperous conditions for some time. In addition to private enterprise, Government Departments will in the near future be spending large sums in building in Palmerston North. The Public Works Department is to add to its present new block at a cost of £lO,OOO, which will make it the largest district office in New Zealand; a site has been acquired by the Government Life Insurance Department for building purposes in Rang!tikei Street; Mr J. Hodgens, M.P., this week announced plans for extending the Post Office frontage by 72ft; the Public Trust offices are to have a second floor added. House Building Paralysed. In one direction the present conditions afford a striking contrast with 1930. Although the city, in common with other centres, has an acute shortage of houses, so that a hundred could be let in a few days, the building of new houses is largely paralysed until private operators can gauge the market effect of the Government’s housing scheme for the city. Whereas throughout 1930 house building was pushed ahead to the tune of £lO,OOO a month, the four months elapsed of the present year have seen only 18 houses authorised. The Government, however, will shortly commen.ee its scheme for building 200 houses at West End.