SHAVINGS

Evening Star, Issue 22106, 13 August 1935, Page 2

SHAVINGS

HALL FOR 60,000 PEOPLE. The gregarious Nazis will begin construction iu the autumn on the largest hall in the world at Nuremberg. It will accommodate 60,000 people, and there will be room on the platform alone for 5,000. ft ft ft ft MOSCOW’S NEW SUBWAY. - Moscow’s new subway, called the most beautiful in the world, was opened to traffic on May 15. The stations are especially impressive with their checkerboard pavement, marble columns, and colourful mosaics, it is reported. ft ft ft ft NEW PALACE AT GENEVA. When the new palace of the League of Nations at Geneva is completed in the autumn will also serve as a museum of international art. Murals and decorations representing the artistic genius of all the member nations will adorn its rooms and halls. * * ft ft PICKET FENCES CONDEMNED. At a tree-planting ceremony for the Island Bay School children, Mr R. M'Keen, M.P., suggested that many of the beautiful Wellington homes at present bounded on the road by picket fences would be greatly improved if the fences were pulled down and replaced by rock fences _or rock gardens. It had to he admitted that such open gardens would be exposed to damage by dogs, but it would still be worth while to remove the high fences and beautify the streets. * * * ft “ SHORT-SIGHTED ARCHITECTS.” The necessary lands at Naiqaqi have been acquired upon which are to be erected the new Government offices in Suva. Naiqaqi means literally “ the mill,” and is in the locality where was erected in 1871 the first sugar mill in Fiji by Messrs Brewer and Jqske. It was hoped that competitive designs would be called for. in Australia and New Zealand from leading architects, but it is understood (says the Suva correspondent of the ‘ Pacific Islands Monthly ’) that the respective architects’ institutes demanded the right to award tho prizes to the designs they themselves considered to bo the best. Academically such designs might have been the more merit-worthy, but the client’s wishes were to take second place; hence a Government architect probably will be appointed, and Australian and New Zealand architects will lose a large, fat plum. ft * ft ft WHITE ANT DESTRUCTION. While the premises of a Suva firm were recently undergoing extensive alterations a termite (white ants) nest of extraordinary dimensions was exposed. The wall was 6in thick, and the wall purlins and studs 4ft apart. The nest occupied about one and a-balf of these areas, or 12 cubic feet, over an area of 24 square feet. An old nest was also discovered below the existing nest, and it fell away as workmen stripped off the lining boards. These boards, on both sides of the wall near the nest, consisted only of a layer of paint, all woodwork having been destroyed by the ants. In fact, all woodwork in the wall, studs, Hogging, etc., was practically hollow, with just an outside shell through which it was easy to push one’s finger. * # * ft PRIVATE HOSPITAL FOR TIMARU, A company has been formed at Timaru to establish a modern private hospital in the town. The caiptal is £20,000, and the directors have obtained a contract with Sister M’Artluir, who has a private hospital in Bidwill street, to purchase her property, on which the new building, to cost approximately £IO,OOO, will be erected. The hospital will be of three stories in brick, tho accommodation for patients being on the two lower floors, with staff quarters on the top floor. There will bo 12 single bedrooms, five two-bed bedrooms, and one four-bed ward. It is proposed at first to register the hospital for 26 patients, but it will be possible to expand the accommodation if the need should arise. The provisional directors are Dr C.S. Fraser, Dr L. S. Talbot, and Messrs B. L. Blodorn, N. M. Orbell, and F. M. Ward. * • ♦ ft POTTERIES BUSY. Gardner’s pottery at New Lynn, one of the many plants of the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company, has reopened after being closed for nearly three and a-half years. Only about 15 men will bo employed at the plant, but if the present renewed activity in building in Auckland is continued it is expected the number will shortly be increased to about 40. There used to be between 70 and 80 men at the pottery, and when working at full capacity it had the largest output of any plant in New Zealand. Some years ago, when several large buildings were being constiuicted in Auckland, over 1,000,000 bricks were made during one month. There has been a marked increase in the sales of the company recently, and the Glenburn works at Avondale are now working part time, while a smaller plant at Kamo is working under'pressure.