160 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
agglomeré ‘sewers in Paris are calculated to have cost 20 per cent. less than 
any other material procurable of the same quality. It must, however, be 
borne in mind that in both those places the circumstances aré very much in 
favour of this result; the cementing ingredients are manufactured on the 
spot, consequently concrete is on a par with brickwork, and has an 
advantage over stone, which comes from a distance. In Otago the condi- 
tions are exactly reversed, brick and stone being in the locality can be 
produced at a moderate rate, while cement has to bear the heavy charges” 
inseparable from the importation of a low priced article. 
When the manufacture of Portland cement is established in New 
Zealand the relative costs of the three building materials will in all proba- 
bility, approach nearer the European proportion. The price of conerete in 
plain walls, near London, with cement at 8s. per cask, is from 9s. to 11s. 6d. 
per cubic yard. Betou agglomeré in Paris, for the same work, with cement 
8s. per cask, hydraulic lime about half that price, and labour 8s. per day, 
costs from 20s. to 24s. per cubic yard. 
The greater cost of the latter is a proof that there is more labour and, 
care bestowed on its preparation than is done with concrete in England. 
The price of cement conerete for ordinary engineering purposes in Dunedin 
is about 35s. per cubic yard, and M. Petre, who has had considerable 
practice in building with conerete, informs me that its price in a plain wall 
is about 41s. 6d.; if to this is added, the cost of outside plastering, which 
is indispensable in any class of dwelling house, we bring it up to 50s. 
Tam not aware of any building having been erected in Otago in strict 
accordance with the method adopted in France, so there is no way of getting 
at the cost from actual experience; but the data at command are sufficient 
to fix 60s. as a close approximate. In America the price of betou is esti- 
mated at from 86s. to 44s. for labour and materials alone, and these are 
much cheaper than with us. The following statement gives the compara- 
tive cost of building in London and Dunedin at the present wee — 
unedin 
London, 
Ordinary brickwork, per cubic — 22s, es ae 
Concrete jo Lak 1a > Bs, 
Betou scatloances ets ii i Sy -o OORy 
Rough rubble as wis teehee os + Te, Odi 
Coursed rubble 18s. o> OTe Gd. 
Freestone ashlar, per ‘ee foot oes ae, Od. se 4s. 6d. 
Hard stone ashlar, rock faced, per 
cubic foot... a so? Ae, ie . = 
Hard stone ashlar, fine desaend ne to 
At those prices, and the standard thickness of wall fercenty econ 
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ee at rah a ete ee ae ee eee 
a eis Ua 
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