The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3549, 23 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1882.

The Municipal Council sat in committee last night to consider, amend, or repeal the building regulations anil other byelaws. The meeting was convened for half-past 7 o'clock, hut at 8 no quorum being present an adjournment of a quarter of an hour took pluce. At the expiration of that time Crs. Margolionth, Price, Lee, Cotton, McDougall, Graham, and Wall took their seats, and, in the absence of the Mayor, Cr. Wall was voted to the chair. Bye law No. 19, building regulations, occupied gthe first atteatiou. The whole proceedings were of a conversational character. Jt was thought by fome of the councillors that No. I district under the bye-law mi»ht be abolished, and by others that its boundaries might be enlarged ; all were agreed, however, that the stringency of the regulations created an unnecessary hindrance to public enterprise. After some discussion it was agreed to amend section 10, No. 1 district, so as to permit of the erection and alteration of buildings to be of iron or other incombustible material to be approved by the Council. The amended section thus reads:—" Within No. 1 district the whole oi the external walls shall be of iron, brick, stone, concrete, or other incombustible material, to be approved by the Council, rising not less than 30 iujbes above the roof measured at right angles from the pitch of the roof, and if built of brick, etone, or concrete, ehall be

of the thickness described in schedule No. 2." The question of private practice indulged in by the Municipal Engineer arose in the consideration of section 4. It was pointed out that under that section builders, owners, or occupies, before beginning any new building, or altering or adding to any premises, were compelled to submit the plans of such building to the Municipal Engineer, who thus, himself being in private practice, obtained a directintroduction to a rival architect's clients. In connection with this eubject the following letter from Mr T. R. Cooper, addressed to the Mayor and Council was read : —

I respectfully submit for your consideration the position that architects in private practice in Napier are placed in, they having to submit their plans to the Municipal engineer for his approval, he having the right of private practice as an architect. If the municipal engineer was not in private practice as an architect, but as an engineer and surveyor only, the case would be altogether different, and no objection could be offered, aa the plans of buildings only have to be submitted. The position of any person holding the office of municipal engineer combined with private practice as an architect can be used as a powerful lever for his own benefit, and, without infringing the strict letter of the bye-law, be used for causing petty but irritating annoyance to rivals. I can confidently state that Jin no other borough is the same double position allowed to be held, and if the system is to continue here the position of architects may be made so intolerable that no architect having proper respect for himself and his profession will care to remain in Napier. After a lengthy discussion, and after several proposed amendments to obviate the difficulty had been considered, it was finally agreed to insert the word " architect" before the word " builder ,, wherever it occurs in the bye-law in connection with the submission of plans to the Municipal Engineer. Tnus tue architect of a building, and not necessarily the architect's clients, would be brought into contact with the Municipal Engineer. The next section that was dealt with was No. 7. This section provides for a scale of fees in accordance with the value of a building to be erected, altered, or added to. It was shown that, as these fees were paid into the Corporation account, and formed no part of the income of the surveying engineer, that any such payment was an unjustifiable imposition. The section was struck out. The Council then adjourned.

Archdeacon Stock, of Wellington, does not believe that the world is coming to an end through the ageucy of the comet in 1883. In a letter to the Evening Post he gives six reasons for his disbelief in the predicted impending ruin. Many people take pleasure in thinking that the end of the world is nigh at hand ; some because a speedy universal collapse will save their reputations ; others because melancholy experiences of lite render life not worth living ; and again there are others who look forward with hope to a future state. Archdeacon Stock points out that the Scriptures cannot be fulfilled if the world comes to an end next year, and though that is the last of his six reasons we may be sure it is the one that has the most weight with him. " I do not think," says the Archdeacon, " that there will be this predicted ruin for these reasons :— I. The comet is said to be a reappearance of the 1843 comet, altered in its motions by the resistance of the zodiacal light around the sun. Frofeseor Newcomby, of America, gives for this comet, in his work on Astronomy, a period of 530 years, writing in 1878, long after the comet had vanished, and when its orbit was well known. It is not known that the zodiacal light could offer this resistance. No one knows what that ia. 2. A comet, in approaching the sun, loses matter, in the tail thrown oft from the head, and left behind : but this comet was brighter than any other comet, and, if it be a reappearance, this ib contrary to what should be, as a comet reappearing would not be so bright at its second visit. 3. A comet approaching the sun, which has moved in an ellipse, must, if its path be by gome resistance, move in a spiral, rapidly closing up. But at each revolution the comet would lose more and more of its matter, and so, at the last, have but little left to do mischief with. I do not also see how such a comet, with very little matter, could so heat up the sun, as it is said. The comet's mass would be as nothing compared with that ©f the sun ; and the heat produced, at the spot touched, would be but as a very small addition to that of the whole sun. 4. Proctor, who began this scare, spoke of the comet, and its attendant meteors, falling into the sun. But because some comets travel in the path of meteoric bodies, it is here assumed that all do so, and that these meteors are essential parts of all comets. But these meteoric bodies revolve quietly around the sun, like the band of asteroids, which are only large meteors, between Mars and Jupiter. Some of these meteor rings have, as I take it, attended one or two comets, but most certainly it is not proved that every comet has a meteor train. 5. Piazzi Smyth, or rather others who have enlarged his Pyramid theory, spoke of 1881----1882 as an ending period. I have never read in any of their pamphlets, of 1883 as a terminal year. 6. For reasons to be gathered by a study of the prophetic Scriptures, I believe that, before any great change in what is now, the Jews must return to their own land ; that the result of tbe changes to be looked for then will be an increase of happiness to the world, under the Kingdom of the Lord ; and that this ruin, predicted for 1883, will not be until the ending of that reign. :, ____________