SYDNEY LEADS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 10 February 1927, Page 4

SYDNEY LEADS.

MOST NEW BUILDINGS. Although practically all tho capital cities of tho Commonwealth vied with each other in their building activities during 1926, Sydney, with n population of 1,200,000, heads the list with 10,844 new buildings, erected at a cost of £13,128,722, representing an increase over the previous year of £1,541,573. The record for Sydney, however, is 12,180 new buildings, erected at a cost of £14,346,071, in 1924, when the population whs slightly under the million mark.

On a basis of expenditure per capita, Brisbane had the best record of all Australian cities during 1926, when buildings to the value of £3,411,385 wero erected. The number of buildings constructed was 4368, arid constitute a record for Brisbane. With a. population of only 263,000, the figures for 1926 are certainly a credit to the northern city.

In. Adelaide, with a population of 303,000, the value of new buildings elected in 1926, totalled £3,872,312. The complete figures for Melbourne arc not yet to hand, although the totals up to Jnne 30th last may be accepted as a guide.

At the end of the half-year the population was 912,000, and the value of new buildings amounted to £6,824,800. Thus, the average value of new buildings erected in the four capital cities of the Commonwealth per head of population was as follows:—Brisbane. £12.9; Adc'aide, £12.8; Svdnev, £12.5; Melbourne, £7.5. Sydney, however, led tho war with the greatest number of new buildings erected at the greatest cost, and the indications for 1927 show that the mother capital will eclipse all previous records.

It is stated thai engineers are studying the possibilities of erecting an enormous lighthouse at'the top of Mount Etna, the trreat volcano in Sicily. This light should become the chief landmark for the pilots of all commercial aeroplanes plying across the Mediterranean. At a height of mote than 10.000 feet above sea level, and supplied with illumination of one billi'on or more candle-power', the lighthouse, it is calculated; should 'w visible frrm almost all points of the Mediterranean by pilots flying at a considerable height over the sea It is proposed to utilise the wind which blows almost constantly o'-er Etna ti supplement other nower to provide electricity for the lighthouse.