MODERN BUILDING BYLAW

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1934, Page 9

MODERN BUILDING BYLAW

STANDARDS INSTITUTION RESPONSIBILITY FOR FRAMING. REPRESENTATIVE committees.

The New Zealand Standards Institution which has been asked by the Government ment to take over the task of preparing a set of model building by-laws dealing with earthquake-resisting construction, hopes to hold meetings of the building code committee, which is in charge of the whole work, including the technical committee, the body charged with the responsibility of drawing up the by-laws, and the by-law panel, which will revise the proposals before final adoption, in Wellington this month. The Government referred the question to the Standards Institution some months ago, but that body has only just finished the work of appointing the sub-commit-tees which are to deal with the various aspects of the task. The initial drafting of the proposed by-laws is in the hands of a sub-com-mittee representative of builders, architects, and structural engineers, its personnel being Messrs. J. M. Dawson and I C. Reginald Forbes (New Zealand Institute of Architects), P. Graham and W. Mill (New Zealand Builders’ Federation), and R. A. Campbell and P. Holdgate (New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers). •

Mr. G. R. Galbraith (Christchurch city engineer)' has been appointed to the committee to which the by-laws will be passed bn for scrutiny after initial drafting. This step is being taken to ensure that the by-laws are applicable to the retirements of local bodies. The revision committee will include a representative of the Municipal Association, the city engineers of Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland, and possibly a representative of the Crown Law Office.

This committee, after revising the draft proposals, will pass the suggested regulations on to the building code committee for consideratiin and, it is hoped, adoption. The building code committee includes representatives of the Municipal Association, the Underwriters Association, the Builders Federation, the Institute of Architects, the Society of Civil Engineers, the Manufacturers Federation, the Electric Supply Authorities Association, and the Department''of Scien-

tific and Industrial Research. It is intended that these regulations shall be recommended to local bodies for adoption, though it is hoped that power will be introduced to make some earthquake building regulations compulsory in the territory of all local bodies. « It is considered by those interested that it will be essential to have legislation by which the by-laws, when drafted, will be enforced. It would be inconclusive to have regulations that were not enforceable.

There was no question whatever about the need for regulations that would make building safe, or at any rate safe, from earthquake shocks, said Mr. Campbell, when interviewed at Christchurch. In a country subject to disturbances these were not only necessary, but highly necessary. He considered, too, that such regulations should be general and made to apply all over the country, from the farthest north to the farthest south. Professor R. Speight had drawn attention .to the fact that all localities were subject to seismic disturbance, with the assible exception of the very far north. Some objection had been raised to such by-laws on the score .that the cost of building would be increased. Actually, he considered, the cost of building would not go up nearly as much as some critics supposed, and the advantage to be reaped would be worth the expense. Mr. Galbraith remarked that there had beei. “an awful lot” of delay in getting regulations drafted and enforced, but it seemed that the way was now prepared for some action. The Murchison earthquake was now five years past and the Napier one was three years ago. In spite of these two violent ’quakes very little had been done. He considered it necessary to have regulations and to have general regulations. He had seen a statement that it was intended to make the by-laws mandatory on localities “with a seismic history.” It was only

a question of going back far enough to find that almost every part of the country had such history. It would be no use, either, having regulations that were merely recommended to local bodies for adoption. He considered any such by-laws should be compulsory, for the protection of property and the protection of life. Some objection to compulsory by-laws had been raised in the country districts, but there the expense would be little. The main danger points, around farm buildings, were the chimneys and the tank stands. Chimneys could be reinforced and tank stands stayed at comparatively little cost. The wooden farm buildings, generally speaking, were strong enough to stand earthquakes; With compulsory regulations a city or town would, in one or two generations, be practically rebuilt in a\ way that would give reasonable protection for citizens and for property-owners against fairly severe earthquakes. He considered that the building, subsidy scheme, when introduced again, might have been extended to allow of reconstruction of public buildings to provide against damage by earthquakes.