NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19888, 27 March 1930, Page 4

NOTES.

The building permits for February issued by the Dunedin City Surveyor (Mr G. W. Gough) reached the small total of £29,969, as against £76,668 in December. The somewhat unusual practice of dividing* the tenders for the glazing and paintine in connexion with a large building job occurred in the case of the work on the new St. Patrick's College at Silvflrstream. near Wellington. Messrs Hall and Gleeson secured the glazing sub-contract, including the supply of leadlights. and Messrs Hill und Jackson the order for the paintine work. It is understood that the painting work is of the greater value, the contract running into the second thousand.

The building figures in Auckland have shown a falling-off for the first two months of the year, and there are many who predict that a halt will be made in big building. Many notable Dublic and commercial buildines havo been erected in the past few years, and to-dav one can see notices of many shoos and offices to let. There are also many houses to let in Auckland, one agent putting the number down at 1400 for the city and contiguous suburbs. Of course, there are many who hope that a halt will not be called in Auckland's building programme, because that would mean a certain amount of unemployment in the building and allied trades.

It is hot generally known, says a writer in tho "Manchester Guardian,?' that the wallpaper trade, which is now applying to the Board of Trade for the compulsory marking _ of imported papers, has been in existence in Britain for well over four centuries, the earliest fragments of wallpaper found dating from 1509 These pieces came to light quite by accident only a few years ago. wlim Bome repairs wcre_ being executed at the Lodge of Christ's College, Cambridge. The original beams had to be exposed, and were found to bo covered with paper bearing black and white design. Luckily the discovery- same to the notice of the Master, who had every scrap preserved, and tho design was eventually reconstructed. disclosing a scheme of pomegranates with a foliated decoration.

Buildings in Sydney are now running no to 12 and 18 storeys high, and that city now has many of these skyscrapers. The building era seems likely to come to an end in Sydney for" a short while at least, the economic situation being against thei drawing of large sums for building purposes when there seems to be ample accommodation for . some time-to come. Up to £3OOO a foot has been paid for property in the heart of the city, and a recent visitor was shown a six-roomed brick house on a 60ft section in the Hand wick, district for which £4500 was apked. The sandhills of Bondi are being sold f«jf £SO and £6O per foot some distance away from the beach, and it is little wonder that blocks of flats of four and five storevs are being erected.

A beginning has been made on the erection of Central Chambers by Mr J. .A. Hart for a Greymouth syndicate. Messrs Luttrell Bros., of Christchurch, are the architects. The estimated oost iM nearly £II,OOO. It will a twostoreyed structure, all of reinforced concrete, with a galvanised steel frame throughout. The pound floor will be divided into four shops, the corner one having a frontage of 3o feet to both Mackay and Albert streets. The other three shops will • each have a length of. 28 feet, by 17 feet in width. Each shop will have recpssed fronts and double • tile finished plate-glass _ windows. The entrance to the stairway will be in the centre of the building in Mackay, street, and the top floor will be subdivided into a suite of rooms, of which there will he twentytwo of various sizes, suitable for prospective tenants. The exterior and in- i terior work of the building will be up-to-date in every respect, finished off in the most modern style, and direct lighting will be made available to all the rooms. This will be the first steel framo building in the town, and the ground floor, first floor, and roof will be constructed of concrete.

The annual report of the New South Wales Master Builders' Association points out that further steps were taken by way of a deputation to the Premier, on November 15th, to urge the presentation to Parliament of tn® Bill, as drafted and approved by the Association, or a Bill to provide for. the., registration ,of builders. It was stressed that registration, would not: only protect the builder, but would also offer protection to the general public; Reference was made to the influx of; unqualified men into the building trade to the detriment of the l>ublioand the genuine master builder. Special mention was, made of the fact that architects are now registered, and the question was asked, if the man who the plan mast be fully qualified and registered, why should not the man. who erects the building be also fully Qualified and registered? Jn regard to the supervision, by local authorities, it was pointed out" that the Local Government Act lays down a number of principles, and it is practically impossible for the councils' officers to extend their supervision to anything be? yond general principles, and as a result the builder is to a large- extent responsible for the quality of the building. Cases were cited where people had' put their savings of a lifetime into a home, only to find that it was defective ift its construction j and it was to protect people from this sort of thing that registration was necessary. The Premier was entirely in sympathy with the proposal to protect the public and to secure a high standard as far as the character and efficiency of building were concerned, but was not prepared to say at the moment that it wonld be possible to introduce a Bill, and he could not give a definite promise in this direction,; ajthough he could , quite see the principles >• which "rendered the registration of architects desirable could well apply to the builder. He pointed out that it was always a serious thing for a Government to limit the right of an individual, to engage in any particular occupation, and consideration must be given to the question of whether the public interest as a whole would be served.