[1] During six decades of Council work, Michael Arthurs has seen incredible change across Wellington city which he knows like the back of his hand. His dad was a city councillor for three terms in the 1950s, and after joining the City Council himself in 1962, Michael is now closing in on six decades of proudly serving the capital. In that time he’s played a number of key roles for the Council, most notably as Chief Quantity Surveyor for 23 years, and seen incredible change across the city he knows like the back of his hand. Quantity Surveying involved lots of documentation. “Everything was done by hand, you wrote everything down. And you’d end up with hundreds of pages of documents. The preparation of schedules of quantities involved thousands of calculations which had to be done by hand or using a Friden calculator, then checked by someone else. Once the documents were prepared they were taken to the typing pool, typed up and then proof-read. If there were changes they were done using twink. And because you were wanting to make 30 copies the typists typed the data onto stencils, then duplicated using a Gestetner machine. The document might have 200-300 pages, and once they were all printed out they had to be collated by hand. We used the desks and any empty floor space to lay them all out and collate them, then it all had to be sent to the libraries department for binding. It was a big job.” [NZBE Link].
[2] District officer, quantity surveyor nabbed by MACC over alleged bribery in Selangor. A district officer and a quantity surveyor have been remanded for allegedly receiving bribes from a contractor in Selangor, bringing to five the number of people arrested so far. “In a four-year period in just one district, the contractor concerned had obtained various projects worth about RM20 million. It is learnt that about 70 companies were used to monopolise these projects, including some 16 companies belonging to their families, with the rest owned by cronies or proxies,” said the source. Borneo Malaysia. [NZBE Link]
[3] Homeowners are being urged to check their insurance policy, to ensure it covers the actual cost of building and repair work. Construction costs have skyrocketed, with the price of steel and timber up 15 percent - something insurance hasn't caught up with. Quantity surveyor Andy Thomson says most homeowners won't get a payout big enough to cover the rapidly increasing cost of rebuilding or repairing a property. "Eighty percent of people are under-insured. They're under-insured by about 50 percent. It's not a small amount, and that's before all this inflation started so it'll just be getting wider," he says. Most insurers require customers to set the price of a rebuild for their policy and have it revalued every year. New Zealand. [NZBE Link]
[4] Mr Harris said his client had saved £10,000 to repay his victims and was intending to train as a quantity surveyor after losing his job as a City trader due to the case against him. A former stockbroker has been jailed for defrauding two pensioners out of nearly £34,000. Sammy Kimmence, 25, of Rayleigh, Essex, took money from two men, aged 81 and 91, claiming he would invest it by placing horse-racing bets. England. [NZBE Link]
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“Celebrating 50 years of New Zealand Building Economist 1972 to 2021”
By Matthew Ensoll
Life Member NZIQS. Reg.QS.
Editor New Zealand Building Economist.