ARCHITECTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 208, 3 September 1934, Page 11

ARCHITECTURE

WORK OF STUDENTS PRIZE-GIVING FUNCTION. ' LONDON, July 20. At the annual prize-giving of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, Lord Leverhulme, who is one of the Leverhulme trustees who provide five scholarships of £2OO each to enable students of moderate means to be educated at the school, gave an address and Lady Leverhulme presented the prizes. Mr. H- A. Parkinson, president of the association, said that during the past year both the bronze and silver medals of the Royal Institute of British Architects had ben won by students of the school. This was a record achievement. Those two medals had not been previously won by the same school in the same school year. In this rapidly changing England of ours, said Lord Leverhulme, how important it was that we should have a public sensitive to architecture; for in the long run it was public opinion which settled what th mgs were done. Although he was a liberty-loving person and would hesitate to recommend anything in the nature of artistic control, he would like to see it laid down that no building more than a certain size or exceeding a certain height should be erected except to the designs of a qualified architect. On hi-s estate in Cheshire he had a rule that no building should be erected on any land he sold or leased, the plans and elevations of which had not. been approved by his advisory architect. His architect endeavoured to preserve the general amenities of the district by insisting that the designs and materials used should be in keeping with their setting. One- could not be too autocratic, otherwise the development of an estate would be prejudiced. But redthin | reasonable limits, a great deal could I he done to prevent, the bad develop- | ment that at present was taking plae« in so many parts of the country. Minimum Conditions. Lord Leverhulme said that, he rerecently asked his architect to draw up was the master mind, and had probably the best international smuggling organisation in Europe. In completing the report of his investigations in Bulgaria, Russell Pasha said it was impossible not to have some sympath” with the Macedonian peasant, who owing to political events, had lost the Salonica market for his tobacco, while the price of wheat in many districts was insufficient to pay the cost of growing. It was estimated that the opium production would this year bring a return of 60,000.000 levas (about £150,000) to these peasants. Their opposition, therefore, to any restriction could easily be understood. Drug addiction did not exist in Bulgaria, and public opinion saw nothing criminal in the manufacture of narcotic products. The fact remained that Bulgaria was to-day I the one source in Europe of wholesale illicit manufacture of heroin, attracting to herself all the scoundrels of I Europe, infecting her neighbours with | the same temptation to make illicit profits, and stultifying the efforts of Geneva through her several international conventions. M. Mikoff, the Bulgarian Charge d’Affaires at Geneva, expressed regret that owing to recent events, it had not been possible for his' Government to meet his request for the presence at that meeting of a person competent to deal with the subject. M. Mikoff gave a formal assurance that the Bulgarian Government would conform more strictly in future to its international i obligations in the campaign against j narcotics.