NOTES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18235, 20 November 1924, Page 4

NOTES.

(By Builder.) "Builder"' invites contributions from readers on any matter of interest which they might Hke to propose. Correspondence on subjects of interest will also be accepted.

Mr J. B. MoCormick has secured the contract for the erection in Fisher street, Beckcnham, of a small chapel for tho Catholic Church. A total of 41 building permits has been issued to date by tho Christchurch City Council for the month of November. Of these, 25 aro for tho erection of dwellings, Messrs Ilennell Bros, aro tho contractors for tho erection of additions to Messrs A. J. AVhite, Ltd.'s premises in Tuam street. The easing off in building activity which has been in evidence in Auckland for sonio months past, is shown by the returns giving tho number of permits applied for in the city area last month. Compared' with October last year there is a 50 per cont. drop, tho total permits for dwellings issued last month being 31, compared with 60 in the corresponding month of 1923.

To clean paint brushes, soak for a couple of days in benzole, and afterwards put them in a hot and' strong mixture of soft soap and soda, and work them about, rubbing one against the other. Paint brushes should always be carefully cleansed after use by placing them in raw linseed oil, and then washing out with soap and warm water till tho froth which arises is perfectly colourless. Then rinse them out in clean water and dry with a clean cloth. Turpentine is often used to cleanso the brushes, but it is a great misfcako to leave tho brushes ir. turpentine, as the spirit injures the bristles, and makes them harsh, and intractable, and also softens the mastic which holds them *in the handle socket.

Mr I?.. Lovcll-Smith is inviting tenders until December 3rd for the erection of a homestead near Horrelville, North Canterbury, for Mr R. G. Wolff.

There is to be further building activity in the Courtenay place area—one of the most flourishing parts of Wellington—in the near future. Two nine-storey steel-framed buildings are to be erected, one a continuation of tho Colonial Motor Company's big building in York street, bringing the premises right out to the Courtenay place frontage, and' tho other on the corner of Dixon street and Inglcwood place, for Messrs Hope, Gibbons and Sons, Ltd., general merchants.

Tenders are being called by Messrs Collins and Harman,' until Friday, November 28th, for the erection of a house on West Belt, Lower Ricearton.

The question whether skyscrapers are ugly or beautiful cannot be decided except with reference to their locality. A prominont British architect, who haa been visiting New York, states the case of the skyscraper with judicial accuracy. "To foreigners," ho says, "they will always be the 'note' of New York, and tho vision of them far away on the approach by sea is an unforgettable thing which one stores in one's memory with tho first view of Venice. But their boauty is a collective thing—tho impression of an immense mass blended, into the image of a fantastic cliff falling sheer to the M-ater's edge. Seen separately or in smaller numbers in cities where there is no necessity for them they are frankly ugly, and obviously out of scale with tho buildings surrounding them."

Arising out of the disaster to a factory at Bradford some timo ago, tho British Trade Union Congress at their annual conference passed a resolution urging the necessity for compulsory periodical inspection of factories by the local authority for tho district, with power to prescribe the execution by the owner of necessary work. The resolution indicates (says a London paper) what is at present a very weak spot in factory legislation. Plans have to bo approved for new factories, but once they are built and passed there is nothing to compel the owner to keep thein in a good state of repair. To carry out the resolution properly many more factory inspectors would be needed. They ought to be provided—not so much, as is sometimes suggested, to protect the workers from callous employers, as to protect careless workers from themselves and assist employers and workmen alike to carry out the principle of "safety first," which is always accepted in theory, but often ignored in practice.

The Grey Hospital Board have launched a public appeal for help towards meeting the cost of the many structural improvements necessary to the hospital and subsidiary buildings. Apart from the new Old People's Home, tho contract for which was secured by Mr W. Williamson, of Christchurch, at .€10,617, a children's ward, kitchen block, porter's cottage, boiler house, coal bunkers, out-patients' department, and dispensing room, are among urgent essentials, and when these are built, attention will be paid to an improved operation theatre and nurses' home. The total cost will be about £30,000, and to pay this a loan must be raised. It is hoped to reduce, by public donations, the amount of this loan, and already the special committee are devising schemes to obtain a generous response from the districts the hospital serves. It is hoped to complete within five years all the works required.