NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20024, 4 September 1930, Page 4

NOTES.

'- Messrs Paynter and Hamilton are making alterations to shops in Colombo street for Mr S. R. Ingold. Permits for the erection of 25 dwellings were issued by the City Council last month. They accounted for £29,110 of the total expenditure authorised. Messrs D. Scott and Son are constructing a new verandah on the Colombo street frontage of Messrs Ballantyne's buildings. Messrs Totterdell, Ltd.. are erecting one at the corner of High and Tuam streets. Messrs Glue Brothers are building a large concrete dwelling in Hoon -Uuy road for Mrs A. C. Andrew, a modern shop and dwelling for Mr P. Sim, in Lincoln road, and a similar structure in Colombo street for Mr W. G. Jenkins.

Westport's new Post Office to replace the building shattered by the big earthquake in June last year has been authorised by Cabinet, and tenders will be called within a few weeks. Trade generally in o estport is brisk, for this season of the year.

Two very old hou; y in Montreal street, opposite tho IWmal School, are being demolished in preparation for the construction of a two-storey reinforced hollow concrete building containing four flats, each of three rooms. These are the first flats to be constructed on this principle in Christchurch. Messrs Glue Brothers are the builders.

The outdoor 6taff of Messrs Smith and Smith has completed its work of redecorating the Ota so Club, and the Chalet Hospital in High street, Dunedin. Some £6OOO to £6OOO has been spent in 'completely modernising the whole of the interior of the club, while the hospital job has kept a large number or painters engaged. »

Dunedin. in sympathy with the other centres throughout the Dominion, is sharing in the general financial depression, states the "Decorator." The great building boom which haa been apparent in shop construction for the past eighteen months or so,• is now causing quite a number of investors a great deal of concern. It is estimated that there are 1550 shops in Dunedin and St. Kilda. and of this number something like 140 are without tenants. This represents about nine per cent, of the total, which is an alarmingly large proportion.

Building continues active on the West Coast, the chief contracts recently placed including that given to Messrs Sotheran, Ltd., of Greymouth* for the construction of new workshops in steel and concrete for the Railway Department at the Elmer, line Depot. The contract price is £7IBO. The new -buildiug is to accommodate the workshops and maintenance staffs, and it is understood that the contract time is ten months. The new workshops will supersede the old wooden structure at present in use at the main station. New stores are also to be constructed at Elmer lane, but this work is being carried out by the Department's employees. The builders nave started on the contract. The steelwork will be supplied by the Dispatch Foundiy Company.

Mr H. Vivian Taylor, architect, ot Melbourne and Alburv. stated recently that through keen competition in the building trade for the limited work offering great reductions in building costs were taking plaoe in the Commonwealth. In some cases buildings had been erected at 60 per cent, of last year's prices. As an instance of this, he stated that at his Melbourne office 60 tenders had been received for a small post office and residence in the Gippsland district. Of the prices tendered, any of the first 23 would have been acceptable to tho owner, although he was informed that the architect regarded the cost as too low for the work. Mr Taylor added that this was not an isolated case. On tho present basis, a timber-framed dwelling of five rooms could be erected in Victorian rural districts for £370.

By building a new verandah and front on to their shop in High street, Messrs Adams, Ltd., have improved the appearance of their premises and the portion of High street in the immediate vicinity. Tho old-fashioned verandah which used to be there has been taken down and one of a new type, supported entirely from above, has replaced it. It has thus been possible to do away with the line of supporting posts along the pavement. In addition to the now verandah Mosers Adams, Ltd., have put in new plate-glass windows, improving tho view into their showrooms, and have installed wider swing doors. The lower side of the verandah is painted white and powerful lamps are placed along it at short intervals, lighting the pavement very effectively. The shops on either side of Messrs Adams Ltd.'s premises are also having the new type of verandah constructed, and when the work is comEleted that part of High street should ave a more modern appearance.

The works of the Dominion Fertiliser Company at Ravensbourne, near Dunedin, are. now nearing completion, and a view of the company's comprehensive plant from the Main road cannot fail to impress the onlooker. The outstanding feature is the massive acid chambers and tower block. This block stands adjacent to the main railway line, its size being Teadily appreciated by travellers on trains. In this quarter of the works is situated the lead chambers, in which sulphuric acid will be manufactured. Three hundred tons of specially refined lead, rendered chemically pure, have been used in the construction of these chambers, and forty artisans and specialists have been engaged for over seven months on this work alone. The lead for the work Was imported from Australia. and was originally mined in Broken Hill. The whole of the lead work, which had to be undertaken with great care, has been under the superVision of Mr L. Mahood, who is recognised throughout Australia as a leading specialist in lead burning and acid chamber construction. Speaking to "Builder" yesterday, Mr W. P. Glue claimed for his firm a New Zealand record in the number of concrete structures it had erected since it launched out in this type of building sixteen years ago. In that period, he said, it had constructed over 400 .concrete buildings, and, incidentally, only two wooden ones. The total inoluded churches, Sunday schools, reservoirs, sub-stations, tennis pavilions, wool stores, and butter factories. Mr Glue is an enthusiast about concrete as a building material and considers that it must be pre-eminent in the future. Costs in connexion with.the use, ha fiaid» were lower than with