CAPETOWN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13651, 20 July 1908, Page 5

CAPETOWN.

A\ r OVERBUILT CITY. INTERVIEW WITH AN ARCHITECT. The fact that Mr W. Blaclc, the successful competitor in the designs, for, C.F.C.A. building hails, from Capetown, has caused some people to ask: " Why lias lie come to New Zealand?" in a conversation with a. "Herald" representative Mr Black let that cat; out of the bag, in reply to a question as to how the war haa affected Capetown. The war, he said, caused a boom in land and in the building trade, as great, as the famous boom in Melbourne •some years ago. A big influx of Britishers into the Transvaal was anticipated, which would have meant a greatly increased amount of business passing through Capetown, and the city was built up in readiness for it. Instead of the'influx of Britishers, the Transvaal got —a few Chinamen. The consequence was that the city was greatly overbuilt. During the height of the boom there was a great demand for offices and residences, and as a consequence of this there w;:s a boom in si'te values. Everyone wanted a place of. liiis own, and with good reason, for the occupant of a rented place never felt secure, was never safe from having the landlord demanding higher and higher rents, on the excuse thai- he had been offered llhem by somebody else. I have known houses to be let, said Mr Black, for £SO and £6O a month, that are now only yielding £lO and £l2 a month. Big suites of offices are now let at rentals that do not exceed one per cent, on the cost., and at least one big modern hotel building is . bringing in no more than that. A general depression set in, and there was a great exodus of people who could get away—many of them Australians and New Zealanders —and the building trade fell dead. There was nothing for architects to do, but to get away also. "I therefore," said Mr Black, "returned to Australia also, though I had been in Cape Colony a good many years. Tlie depression affects the whole of Cape Colony, and it is on-that account that the Premier postpones consideration of proposals -for the federation of all the South African States. He will not join the family party as a " poor relation." The-depres-sion affects the Transvaal still more acutelv, and dis*.T«i in the centra °rs than it was in Melbourne after'-the collapse of the land boom. The cause commonly assigned for it is the over-c.mUalisation. of the mines. High prices were given for land, and the speculative values have dropped off, leaving only the agricultural value, and that ii> not much.