TNE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81916, 10 January 1907, Page 4

TNE PRICE OF BUILDING MATERIAL.

AIJj ROUND ADVANCE OF Tli.V l'Elt CIiNT. "Yes there lias certainly been an all-round advance of lt> per cent, in the price of building materials. Tin: iucrca-c ill Mane lines has. of cnur.,c, been nni.-li more marked, laii, gouor-

al!v speaking 111 per cent, is a fair approximation." This rema.k was nanle l.y 111.' Ilea! i I a big wholesale House to a Wellington Post reporter. In twelve months, lie said, sheet-lead Ins advanced weH over III) per cent., the rise in the price of copper has luvn plicno'ui'un! during recent years, owing to lie-- "it. minus demand for electric cables and electrical appliances of all kinds in which copper is used. The demand las outrun the supp y with tie' consequence that prices have gone. soaring upwards. Two years ago copper was selling at XSS per ton. In October, 1!'05, it went to C7O lis (id, and to-day's cablegram gives the price at £lO7 10/. Tin has also advanced rapidly. Lead has moved upwards in the past two u»an> from £l2 5/ to XI!) 10/. Antimony lias actually risen from X2(i to 'XIOJ in two years. Similarly iron lias risen ill price, but not to the same extent as tin and copper.

hi inquiring elsewhere about the price of oilier building materials, the reporter was informed that scrim, for instance, is to be advanced 2."> per cent. Wallpaper is on the up grade in Now Zealand. It is stated that the English manufacture is ousting the Herman article, save in the case of a few lines, which the British manufacturers do not trouble about. "Generally speaking, the Englishmen are beating the Germans." was the way in which the head of a leading Wellington linn I put the case. Glass, on account of the strikes at Home, experienced a very big rise at one time during the your. Prices have probably risen 5 per cent., and there are indications that further advances will be recorded shortly. Even picture frames have advanced 15 per cent. The ambitious young man who dreams of setting up a household on his own account will, apparently, need to remodel his estimates.