BUILDING REGULATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1931, Page 6

BUILDING REGULATIONS.

One of the results of the earthquake in Hawke’s Bay will be the issue of new building regulations to be applied throughout the Dominion. A committee has been set up to prepare emergency regulations for 'the areas that suffered so severely, and these are to be submitted to the special' session of Parliament which opens ijext month. When these have been prepared the committee is to frame the more comprehensive regulations for application throughout the country. There is everything to be said in favour of this. New Zealand has to recognise that it is a country subject to earthquake and to shape" its building designs accordingly. The little controversy over the personnel of the committee, which for some inexplicable reason did not include any nondepartmental architect, should have been settled by the appointment of a Wellington practitioner, and the importance of the committee’s duties should be apparent to all. Fortunately science can do much to minimise the effect of earthquake shocks though if it is to have a fair chance it will mean community effort and building designs that subordinate individual tastes or wishes to the common good. It is obvious that regulations with the force of law behind them are necessary to bring this about, especially in the larger centres, where demands for display, or the high cost of land, or other factors have had an effect upon building design that is not all that could be desited from a community point of view. Irregularity of design was unavoidable as small settlements developed into larger towns and cities with a rapidity scarcely believable in older lands. That period in the Dominion’s history is nearly closed, and development for the future, though it may be just ns rapid, must be upon different lines and will call for a more carefully though out building policy. This it is the duty of the Building Regulation Committee to frame, and no one can deny that it has one of the most important tasks that any organisation equid undertake.