Defence Construction Expenditure

From 1939–40 to 1945–46, over £50 million of defence construction work was controlled by the Public Works Department and the Housing Construction Department.³

The need for new army camps gave rise to one of the largest demands for defence construction work. In all, over £16 million of

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construction work of various types was done for the Army. Naval construction work amounted to £3 ½ million, and Air Force work, including, in particular, the acceleration of aerodrome construction, amounted to nearly £16 million. Work on behalf of the United States Forces, predominantly camps and military hospitals, was valued at over £7 million. Civil defence work, including air-raid protection works, munition factories, and the like, approached £8 million in value.

Expenditure from year to year is shown in Chart 50. From between £3 million and £4 million a year in the first two war years, it rose to over £5 million in 1941–42; then, under the influence of the Japanese invasion threat, and boosted by the needs of United States forces in New Zealand, it rocketed to over £17 million in 1942–43.