AUSTRALIA HOUSE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16313, 10 September 1918, Page 9

AUSTRALIA HOUSE.

4 LIKE A PALACE. ("Argus" Correspondent.) LONDON, June 28. Australia House is a huge building, almost wholly devoted to the Commonwealth. A large part of the ground floor is occupied by tho Commonwealth Bank—a very suggestive tenancy, for cavillers at an expenditure of threequarters of a million have ocular testimony to there being tfue metal behind it all. Nearly two-thirds of the above-named sum has been expended on the building; the remaiuder on the 6ite. Exteriorily, it is a iioble structure, well worthy of tho metropolis, and an honour to the Commonwealth. Its main entrance halls and principal corridors are resplendent in coloured marbles* These and every bit of the woodwork are handsome illustrations of th 4 products ,of Australia. The t building is an object-lesson, and literally a huge advertisement. ££ome of its decorative features are magnificent. The homo Government has no public office or public building to equal it. The rooms of the High Commissioner, the official secretary, and two or three other leading officials would not discredit a Royal palace. And there are, in corridor after corridor, nearly two hundred rooms of no great pretension, good useful apartments for work-a-day administration, for the naval and mercantile officials and their staffs, and j Jor dozens of clerks and typewriters. The noblest apartment in the whole building is the Conference Jlallj more commonly called the library, though few of the books are kept there. This huge room is almost as long, though not quite so wide, as a tennis court; some thirty or more feet high, and has an alcoved ceiling. It iB panelled with Australian black bean, has t tnarble columns, casement windows, highly artistic carvings, and decorations in excellent taste. There are no mosses of gilt to disturb the eye with- vulgar garishness. The carpet of this vast apartment is a wonderful piece of wcav r ing. It is of sober colours, and ita tone accords with the wood-work and the marbles.. Into the design are woven patterns of the wattle, and other distinctive Australian features. The conference tables and chairs were all made in Australia. '