Scarcity of Material.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 1, 1 September 1919, Page 592

Scarcity of Material.

A Hospital Board Contractor Gets 10 per cent. Increase on Contract.

The Architects to Waikato Hospital Board last month advised that the contractors for the nurses' quarters and kitchen block had written stating that they were unable to proceed because they could not obtain material, and they would have to dismiss their men.. With regard to material they pointed out that they had been notified of a rise of 9s per ton on cement and 7s 6d per 1000 on bricks, which amounted to practically a .10 per cent. rise. If the contractors had to carry the rise, they stated that it would be impossible far them to continue the contracts, and they would ask the board to release' them from the same unless some arrangement could be made to give them some measure, of protection. The architects supported the contractors statements.

The result of this was a special meeting of the Board, and after conferring with its solicitors and the architects, the following resolution was cairried:— "That the board grant the contractor an advance not exceeding 10 per cent, on all material on which the architect gives is certificate that the cost has risen as a diirect or indirect result of the railway 'cut,' and that the Government's consent be applied for forthwith."