A HEAVY BLOW.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 10, 7 October 1907, Page 5

A HEAVY BLOW.

: "Our Lady's Ifoma of Compassion." . .DEFECTIVE BUILDING. SEVERE SET-BACK TO' THE institution: Between four and' five months ago ■ Our Lady's Home of Compassion,"' . the. institution sitiit'.cd on the hillside to tho west of the .main road to Island Bay, intended for the housing of incurable children, was opened with the'greatest'eclat.'- A Minister of tho Crown was present and spoke, His Worship the .Mayor , lent Ins presence, and,'many leading members of theclergy, and public bodies attended to give kindly countenance to one of. tho most deserving ; oharities that public consideration. . The building (the portion orected is only half of the whole) which npw stands on the green slope_of tho Island Bay hills, was at tho timo of the "opening" thought by laymen to ho a very pretentious and commodious building, quite fitted for the purpose for which it,'was erected. Thought to be Unsafe. ... It will therefore como. as a painful surprise, to- the hundreds, who ,were present at tho ceremony, and to the thousands' who subscribed and svmpa-, thise with tho good work of the Very llov. Mother Mary Joseph Aiibert, to learn . that, , the . building' has boon 1 practically uninhabited ovor since tor the simplo reason' that it is thought ■ to. be structurally unsafe. Rumour has been activo l for some tiinfi past re- ■ garding- tho building and its defects, and enquiries were • made by a •Dominion rojwesoiitatiyo, who learned particulars ot what is reollj; a deplorable state of things, especially when the" character of the institution that suffers is taken into account.' i . ■ What Is Wrong. . ' ■ . Visited yestorday it did hot take a ■ very experienced 1 eye to decide thct the' structure was far from perfect. , Tho: building, which faces the north, is of two story; in brick, cementfaced, V with a. flat roof, from which • rises a not l ■ ungraceful •' The central portion of- tho building comes > right' out:to tho frontago line,on both stories, while, oil either side (upstairs), aro spacious balconies enclosed a •• stout brick • parapot, having "a flooring of nouchatel asphalt. Half of each of those, balconics is uncovered, bift the other half is roofed in with heavy , masonry, the dividing line being three stout cast-iron pilfars supporting big arches of concrete. These pillars rest on ' the girdor that runs : across the , centre of ; tlie-coiling of the large wards at cither end of tho building, and though •' the distance' spanned by the girdor is ' about 30ft., there aro no pil- , lars on tJio ground floor at.all to take the stress of, what must bo an immense weight. : " Sagging Girder. : v _ The result of this unequal .distribution of strain has caused the girder to sag slightly, with' tho result that there exists an ominous crack in tho ■ masonry. straight] abovo tho point of i the centre arch ,in each of tho bal- , conies (at opposite ends of .the building), . and .there are other cracks smaller, but .significant of something wrong soniowhero. Obviously* the span is too great for the girder, the size vpf which was yesterday still concealed iij ( plaster. ■ Sprung a Leak I , ' •' Though a brand-new building, there are -unsightly.- patches on the walls and Ceilings all over tho place, indicating- plainly that the place is leak- . ing like a sieve. It was pointed out' that there is no spouting on tho'tower, which \ should have had a run-away gomewHerd. This would have been a detail, if tho water had been alloweui to run off' the asbestos tilesof this :ornamentation oh to the- ■ neucha|tol .asphalt roof, "but this was not permitted, the rain being allowed to finfl/its way between tho'edge of the tiles »ind the brick wall (of the tower) and /so to soak through .into the room on /a level with the roof formed by the Wtiaro of tho tower. In one* place it seen' that the water must have .Spouted-in; for it has worn a groovo /a an inch'deep in tho cement of the. interior wall. Strenuous efforts are' being made to ascertain the numerous points of leakage and effect repairs so as to save'<the interioi; of the building. Addod to these ■ specific dcfects, there is a marked lack of finish about the whole building. Amongst other defects : there are a couple' of cast-iron pillars used in the western balcony containing serious flaws as l would seem to point to tho 'i necessity that they, should have been set aside in'favour of sound ones. The Rev. Mother's Distress! • Naturally the discovery of, all these structural defects has made the Reverend Mother almost distracted, but in addition to these troubles -she has had to 'have several other alterations made that -will mean the expenditure of a large sum of money. Tee Dominion representative noticed a great gap in. a brick' wall where a door is being put: in: The architraves round the doors wero fir too elaboratehomes for .microbes, ,tho llov. 'Mother' calls them—and they aro being replaced by plain ones. Tho skirtingboards havo been torn-off overywhero, • and the Kcene's comoht walls are to bo'continued to the floor lovol. ' What has been Done. As soon as the defects of tho building were established in her own mind, . the Rev. Mother set about getting opinions from a number of representative architects,- with tho result that the work- of patching up the structure has been .entrusted to Mr. John S. Swan, who has arranged with Mr. John Moffitt to do his bidding. The whole business is particularly distressful on account of tho hard work tho Kov. Mother and tno Lit-tlo Sisters of the Poor havo done to collect funds'for tho orection of tho institution. Now tboy havo to face an expenditure of over £1000 in effecting repairs that should not have been necessary. No doubt an appeal will be made to the public later on to covor the and when that is' doiie there should be a ready response.