A TRYING YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 51, 1 March 1934, Page 4

A TRYING YEAR

BUILDING INDUSTRY

ARCHITECT'S COMMENTS

"This has probably been to our niein.bers the most trying of the years of the f depression," said Mr£,W. H. Gummer, inJiis presidential address at tho annual meeting hi the^New .jZealand Jnstitute of Architects'last niglit. "Tho amount' of building work done, notwithstanding the welcome palliative of the Governniont building subsidy, is still almost negligible. It is no wonder, then, that next to that Of stimulating, the building industry, \tlis "greate'sfci anxiety- of your executive,' its longest nours'of'duty, and its endeavour to find .the-fair and even gonerous'solutipn inJef^efy'instance, has been connected'!with? the problem of our unfinancial members* "'/Each case under inquiry has been'" dea^j; with ,-with care and sympathy. "'ln there1 has been undoubted evidence'^o'f misfortune, in others of past carelessness, *'ip.~ia. few, a very few, there is lafclt of; considerationfor the good of the institute! "but in'the majority a desire, backed by personal sacrifice borne with pluck and good humour, to do the utmost rather than that the future of the institute should be imperilled by the members' failr m . v: ;;:. ,'<ALMOS3? COMPEETE CESSATION" '•'"lt is disappointing --indeed^ that, strive as w'e v have.irjve have'been-able to,do, little, in face>_f the" almost complete .cessation af.]bnilding,.";to"«aid the position of .the^m'any unemployed or employed in --'out profession;-! As you'lino^v, ■following, tne last annVal-.meeting'l a"committee .of '< the council was set up" with the idea that all the branches should individually and collectively striyo to evolve a workmanlike solution of the question at issue. Why nothing .eventuated, from this aetiori is because we have-found oujselves'ppposcdi.'by a problem touching "tho fundamentals of our economic existencel.JWhen; in a big sense weiadmit failure we ard, after all, in goodly company, for where, among the world's great men, can we point to success in this matter. "At the same time complacency is impossible, and one is appalled at the state of affairs in this country, in which relief employment is provided -at a 1 cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds, but ! in which, owing to the local authorities uuingsuch Telief labour .not being able to provide tho necessary finance for the 1 cost of materials, the work done is frequently; without productive value. Such employment-is, in fact, destructive—in its effect on the morale of the men en- , gaged. . I sometimes wonder, when economic experts and politicians are so [ busily engaged in differing ono from the other, what, any layman can contribute of value, tiut it.may be again a fact that 'the onlooker sees most of the game.' Any; step ill the direction of encouraging the. building industry to return to normal channels might well, I submit, engage the most earnest attention of the Government. . . . APPROACH TO'IHE PUBLIC. / "But while bnable to suggest any realsolution of the problem, wo have, in lesser ways, not been idle. We have done our share in emphasising to those in' authority the extent and importance of the' building industry; we can take some credit to ourselves for what amount of relief the building subsidy has given;' wo have considered, inithe proposed small house service bureau (probably without direct success) .the means' of which we 'could give v much. needed assistance to the public yin a' section of domestic work on which previously we have had little influence; and in a brochure which we liope shortly to publish we are endeavouring to make the - public more, 'architectminded. ' Such an approach to the pub-lio-as tho-latter is long overdue/J' ;-,