PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 81, 29 December 1917, Page 8

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

PROGRESS OF NEW STRUCTURE. Yesterday the scaffolding was removed from the chamher that io to be occupied by the House of Represontaties in the new Parliamentary Buildings. The plastering and decorating of the ceiling of the chamber have been completed, and the walls cf the galleries have also been plastered.. The galleries have- not yet any wooden floors or railings, the original cemoni work, being uncovered, and the main flour and Tower walls of the chamber are etill in the rough. The new buildings will not he completed when Parliament next mtets, but the contractors hopo to ha able to hand over the main chamber, ibe big lobby, the division lobbies, and certain essential rooms, including the Press rooms, by June next. , fn that case the House of Representatives will hold its nest meeting in the new chamber. Members will havo to use the elder wooden building for many purposes, but; they will be spared another session in the confined and ill-ventilated chamber that they have used for the last, ten years. • The outer marble walls of the rew building are not yet complete, wit tbey are approaching their full height, and the roofing may- be completed in the early months of the new year. Most or the rooms, including-Ministerial quarters, committee rooms, refresnment rooms, the Speaker's suite, Mid so forth, havo taken form, but they are inero shells of reinforced concrete. Plastering is proceeding at several points. The woodwork has still to bo undertaken. A passage on the second floor is occupied at present by .no tittings for lavatories and bathrooms. Stairways are represented in many cases by concrete frameworks that look curiously inadequate, though as a matter of fact their J«6ed sirtncth will but be disguised by the work tbat has still to be done. The chief trouble to be faced In-the contractors still is the shortageicf labour Plasterers can be obtained at the present time, but bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters, concrete workers, and general labourers are all scarce. This trouble, which has been felt over since the beginning of tho contract, crows more pronounced with the proaress of recruiting- in the Dominion. The shortage of suitable stone '.Mat dclavod the work at one stage has been overcome since tho new quarries were opened. .