BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Otago Witness, Issue 4042, 1 September 1931, Page 74

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

ENDORSED BY CIVIL ENGINEERS. WELLINGTON, August 24. “ To say that the civil engineers of New Zealand are opposed to the principles and purposes of the Building Construction Bill now before Parliament is very far from the truth,” Mr A. S. Mitchell, consulting engineer and architect,' of Wellington, said when his attention was drawn to the adverse criticism that has been levelled at the proposals in the Bill. “In this matter," added Mr Mitchell/“I can speak with confidence, as Mr H. F. Toogood and myself w r ere appointed by the Executive Committee of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers to appear before the Local Bills Committee of the House, not to oppose the Bill but to offer sympathetic and constructive criticism of the measure which the society as a body whole-heartedly endorses. That a measure concerning matters so vitally affecting the lives and the property of the people of New Zealand should be shorn of its compulsory effect is, it must be admitted, to deprive it of its chief merit. Much as one may appreciate the willingness and ability of local bodes to administer the measure in all its details, in the last resort someone must be empowered to enforce it, and, as may he seen from its text, this is exercised only in the case of wilful default.” Mr Mitchell was a member of the Building Regulations Committee set up after the Hawke’s Bay earthquake to frame recommendations for the supervision of building design and construction. He is chairman of-the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, and holds the office of vice-president of the institute.