HOT AIR IN PARLIAMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18632, 16 February 1935, Page 2

HOT AIR IN PARLIAMENT

VENTILATION PROBLEM “COOLING DOWN” an experiment WITH ICE Hot air in Parliament—a subject foi frequent .jesting—is causing serious concern. during the present spoil of sultry weather in Wellington.’ As Parliament normally opens in June and rises about the end of October, the chief ventilation problem' is usually to ensure that the air in the chamber is comfortably wanned. The heating system has not always been satisfactory, and is admitted to he obsolete compared with the progress made in that art, since Parliament Buildings were .erected oyer 20 years ago. Some members seeking to evade draughts in the winter months have blocked ventilating grids with blotiing paper, but when the House meets in summer, as has been the case on several recent occasions, members have been equally anxious to ensure that adequate cool air enters the stuffy chamber. To forestall complaints of that nature experimental measures were taken just before the session was resumed this week. The air which is drawn from outside near the boiler room in .the basement is naturally hot, bill, the experiment is being made of passing it over ice before it, is whirled three storeys upward to the chamber under the impetus of a large fan. Two fans in the roof of the chamber ensure that a cooling cross current, is set up, while obnoxious gases are drawn off by an extractor. The temperature outside on Wednesday was fi3 degrees and possibly it would have exceeded that (igui;e inside the chamber but for the ico experiment which reduced the inside temperature to 72 degrees. On Thursday it was slightly cooler, so the difficulty of "cooling down’’ the chamber was not so great. However, the iceman will continue to call daily with a hundredweight block until the sultry weather passes.