BRICK VERSUS TIMBER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1925, Page 4

BRICK VERSUS TIMBER

i .MODEL’X BED.DINGS. AVKI.LINGTi iN, March 13. , Paragi .;ph-i which have appeared in the Nee Zealand press from time to _ time with relcrenee to the increasing; popularity of brick dwellings propmtod a ‘'Times” reporter ycstvidny to ask .Air Arthur Seed, se.retuiy of the Xcw Zealand Sac miller ; .Federation, if lie eon-mere,l that the day might come "'lien Illicit house.; would he the rule and not the exception. “No; i am satisfied that we shall never do away with wooden houses,” Mr Heed icmarked. “-Act that brick houses are not satisfactory hut more pai t icularly because in New Zealand we are in process ot more rapid development than probably any of the other Dominions, and a house built to-day may he hopelessly out .of date in 20 years’ time as regards its appointment; and style of architecture. More probably a dwelling built this year would, in tile, course of tk next two decades, find itself in the centre of an industrial area. In that rase the owner might desire to leave tlie district or sell the house and with a wooden dwelling lie could more readily do that than would he the ease if he owned a more costly Brick idrueture, | MODE ADAPTABLE. “Another reason why 1 think we | shall never do away with wooden lions- { c.s is because they are so .suitable to alterati ui and conversion, which can he j done very much cheaper than would he the ease in a brick dwelling. I

“If we build a house to-day for a lifetime of 50 years that, in my opinion. is all that is wanted.” Air Seed did got believe ill building houses that would last for 200 or 300 years.

j ‘'Take, for example, the Georgian . period houses in London today. They have become so completely out-of-date that it would be too costly a bufiinos to modernise them, and the I result has l>Yon that they have been I left as they were and have deterio- ! rated into tenement houses and slums in many (rises. “LONG LIFE NOT XEEDED.” I we build houses of brick, or stone, or anything else to last for two or three centuries in Xew Zealand they would, as in England, become hopelessly out-of-date in time and degenerate into slums.

“ The wooden house will not lose favour in Xew Zealand. I am quite convinced on that point.'’