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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2422, 10 February 1909, Page 5

A Dunedin exchange states that oil launches are gradually taking the place of fisliing-smacks, and scarcely a fisherman is now to be seen leaving Port Chalmers of an evening under sail. During the past year in particular a large number of launches liavo been turned out. A Port Chalmers boat-builder says that during the last sixteen months he has turned out something like seventeen launches—averaging about one a month—most oi them being for fishermen. The demand for pleasure launches is also on the increase. There is in course of construct ion in Ghuznec-st-reet, ‘Wellington, the first steel-frame building to be constructed on the most approved American methods —the style of construction in ■which each ’storey bears its own. weight. In this building (says the “Dominion,”) the skeleton frame of heavy steel girders and stanchions is solidiv riveted together; then each girder and stanchion is encased in special lv-prep a red concrete (reinforced with steel wire), which, in the ease of the exterior girders, makes a shelf on which to erect the brick walls, so that each section of brickwork is really only a panel, and could he knocked out at any time without impairing the. stability of the structure as a whole. Assuming; for instance, that a fire occurred next door, and a portion of the brickwork' perished through intense heat, that pa:t could be taken awav and replaced without the shell test trouble. The floors are of reinforced concrete, designed to carrv 3001 bto the square foot. The strength is given to the floors t y steel rods,°only six inches apart, v od(ed on tho girders on both s ides < f ec eh section, and then boxed in with concrete. The electric lift shaft is constructed on similar linos, the architects claim that this is .the truest forth of steel-frame building, that it is economical in the end, owing to the space- it saves (the walls ate en v 14 inches in thickness), and that it. is practically fire and earthy _i ike pi qoi;