BUILDING ACTIVITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1939, Page 6

BUILDING ACTIVITY

MASTERTON 1938 FIGURES. DECLINE IN VALUES. The value of building permits issued in Masterton for 1938 showed a slight decline as compared with the figures for the previous year. Permits to the value of £50.950 were issued in 1937. and the figure last year was £49,223. The number of permits decreased from 118 to 99. Seventeen new dwellings were erected, against 22 in 1937. Last month four permits to a value of £6372 were taken out in Masterton. compared with six valued at £1570 in December, 1937.

The Borough Engineer, Mr C. R. Mabson. stated yesterday that State houses in occupation or in course of construction within the borough were not included in the list of permits. They were not subject to local bodyapproval. Mi- Mabson said that on a recent vis.it to the South Island he had noticed considerable activity in private iome building. Far more private louses were being built there than in the north. Building costs were slightly lower, but he could give no other reason for the greater activity. Wanganui building figures, he added, made an interesting comparison with those of Masterton. Wanganui was a town of more than twice the population of Mastertor.. yet it led Masterton by only £BO9O in value of building. Masterton’s £49,060 in 1938 compared very favourably with Wanganui’s £57.000.