RISING COST OF MATERIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1920, Page 6

RISING COST OF MATERIAL.

CONTRACTORS' DIFFICULTIES. The serious disabilities which contractors face in tendering lor public works were exemplified in a case considered by the Auckland Harbor Board at its last meeting. " The contractor for the sheds on Central Wharf, Mr. Robert Saunders, wrote asking the board to grant him some compensation fur the heavy increases in prices of material and labor that had taken place since he tendered for the work. The writer staled that material rose at such a rate that before he could place orders the prices had risen considerably above his schedule prices. As an instance lie said that girders, which he had tendered on at £2B 18s a ton, had cost him £35 Ss Gd. Steel plates were costing him up to £4O a ton, his schedule price being only £3O. Asbestos slates rose 10 per cent, before he could get his order in. He had accepted a price for paint at £55 a ton, but the British manufacturers charged him £l2 a ton for tins to put the paint in. He had no redress, as everything had been on sight draft, and now sight drafts had been refused, so lie had hud to go to the expense of establishing a letter of credit at Home. ''Now. on top of this," wrote Mr. Sanders, "comes a fls a week bonus to all workers, which it is impossible for me to pay on my schedule price. Coupled with this is the serious loss I have incurred owing to material not coming to hand. For months my plant has been idle for want of material, etc., and had it not been for the, efforts of the chairman and acting-engineer I do not know when I would have got it."

The matter was referred to the board in committee, the acting-engineer to report.