ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 777, 24 September 1853, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New-Zisalander.

Sir, —As your paper is so extensively circulated, and considered as an authentic source of information, may I beg a reply at your earliest convenience to the question,— How long will it probably be before my friends—on whose account I have made application—will receive notice to join the ship destined to convey them to Auckland ! As in all cases, so peculiarly in this, " Time is money," and should there be any considerable delay, it might in a great measure neutralize the very liberal and wise intentions of our respected Governor. I may add, I ask this information through your columns not for myself alone, but for those in the settlements and districts who cannot so easily obtain it. I am, Sir, Yours, very respectfully, J J H.R. R. Sep. 21,1853.

l/The question proposed by our correspondent being of interest to many, we are happy to afford all the information, m our power. As soon as a list of a sufficient number of applications has been made up, and despatched to England, the Government, we understand, forward a circular, (a number of which have been issued, and of which we subjoin a copy), to the applicant here, who may then safely advise his friends at home that , passages have been secured for them. The names and addresses having been sent home, no doubt as soon as arrangements are made for their departure they will be apprised of the fact from the office of the Emigration Commissioners, and informed of the port at which they are to embark, and the date of the vessel's sailing; but should there be any delay, intending emigrants at home may ascertain all particulars by communicating with the office of the commissioners, addressing their letters to "Stephen Walcot, Esq., Secretary to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, 9, and 15, Park-street, Westminster." —Ed.N. Z.] [Circular.] Colonial Secretary'* Office, Auckland, Sir, In reference to your application for the persons named in the margin to be brought to this colony under the conditions published in the Notice in the Government Gazette, dated 17th May last, I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you that their names have been included in a list forwarded to the Secretary of State, with a request that the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners may be directed to send them out without delay. I beg leave to enclose a form of Bond for the repayment of One-half of the cost of the passages of the persons above alluded to, according to.the present rates, and I am directed to request that you will fill up the same with your signature attested by two witnesses, and that you will then return the Bond to this office I have the honor to be, Your most obedient servant, Colonial Secretary.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander.

Sir, —A considerable time ago, a letter appeared in your columns, calling public attention to the necessity of inquiring into the qualifications of persons practicing medicine ana surgery in this colony, according to the usage followed in the sister-colony of New South Wales. Although nothing has resulted from that letter, I am encouraged to hope that the time ha* now arrived, when such an arrangement as that above specified, might be carried into effect with advantage to the community, and in justice to the legitimate, regularly accredited practitioner. At present, there is nothing to prevent any one setting up as Physician in Auckland, even a man professing the imposture of Ilomwpathy, against which, all the British colleges, and the mass of medical men' at home have lifted their voices in indignant reprobation. If such a man should offer himself to public notice, he should be made to feel that he can only do so as a quack. 1 am, Sir, Your obedient servant, M. R. C. S. September 22nd, 1853.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander.

Sir, —Mr. Mason has again appeared as a critic, and to make the performance more entertaining he has added the cnaracter of Puff. He tells us with the utmost self-complacency how accurately he can describe a plan ; he speaks of the rarely advantageous circumstances under which he studied his profession ; of his superintending Carlton Hall and other buildings of note, to say nothing of his having " designed and completed many other public and private buildings in Europe." Mr. Mason's reply of yesterday in no way improves his case. It is rather a shabby retreat from a position which he held to he impregnable, and from which the annihilation of three of his competitors was to follow. The only answer which it would have been worth his while to give, would be to shew that he had a plan before him giving the length of the girders, and that that length was seventy feet. This he could not do. He has no right to shelter himself under a guarded statement of facts when he draws from it a decisive conclusion, I am not going to prolong this controversy about gjrders and trasses, still less am I going to weary you with anecdotes about my " early years." But as Mr. Mason has taken to himself the character of a vritic, I think I may Jbe

permitted to question his to the title. Mr. Mason appeals in support of his claim to Carlton Hall, Buckingham and Lambeth palaces, and to any buildings in Europe you please. I appeal to his design " Ad referendu'-n." I do not wish to comment on the construction of that plan—not that in this respect it is not open to much censure —but because it is difficult to do so without introducing terms which are not generally understood. I shall relate only the glaring and unpardonable defects in its general design and arrangement which every one who lives in a house can understand.

The want of harmony between the external appearance and the internal arrangement is so great that he is obliged for the sake of effect to resort to the unusual expedient of blank windows—in this design there are twenty-four blank compartments.

In the grand staircase there are twenty-two steps to rise a height of seventeen feet four inches, giving a rise to each step of nearly ten inches—more than is given to the distance between the rounds of a ladder.

There is on the ground floor a passage twentyfour feet long without a light. The gentlemen's room is without light except a borrowed one from the Housekeeper's room. Servants ;uc unfible to communicate with their bed-room in the tower except through the gentlemen's retiring-room. There is no outlet in the roof for the chimnies of the kitchen, Private Secretary's room and dining-room. If the flues of these fireplaces were carried up through the one pair floor and roof as they should be, they would pass through the ball-room and supper-room floors. In the plans, on the cast of the centre of the building there are ten fireplaces, but in the elevation of that side only six flues appear. On the west side there are eleven fireplaces, but on the west elevation only six flues are shewn. The breakfast-room is lighted by one of the meanest windows in the building, the scullery by a handsome bay of elaborate tracery. The scullery adjoins the dining room. Such blunders as these in the design of a man who makes no pretensions to superiority might be pardoned,—but, for a critic ! I am, &c, Reader "Wood. Auckland, Sept. 22nd, 1853.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —Mr. Mason has, we perceive, again appeared among your correspondents as a critic on one of the designs which we lately submitted for a Government House ; and to give, we imagine, greater force to his observations, has entered into a minute account of what he has done as an architect from his " nineteenth year" upwards. Allusion to the employment of his j-outh seems at present unnecessary. Mr. Mason's plans for a Government House are before the public, and from the amount of ability displayed in those we may fairly estimate Mr. Mason's fitness to criticise,

. In our former reference to Mr. Mason's remarks, we stated that the designs submitted by us were not intended as working drawings — such had not been called for, and, consequently, we had deemed it unnecessary to show all the required trussing of partitions for dressing rooms, and framing of joists. Mi*. Mason thinks otherwise as a critic, but seems to have held the same view when drawing his own plans. We are willing to believe that Mr. Mason's castellated design, "Ad Referendum," is only intended as the partial embodiment of an idea, and not as a matured design, from which a building could be erected. Its errors are so many as to disarm criticism. The Doric design, " Conge d 'Elire," is more simple, and, in the original intention, more capable of being carried into execution. It has, however, the following delects : Ist.—ln order to.introduce light to the interior, two '•' open areas," or wells, of a diameter of 7ft. by 6ft., are carried from the roof for 31ft. down to the ground floor. Several rooms and passages have apertures into these wells at their foot, and are intended to derive light from them. One well has a lateral deviation of sft. from the perpendicular, and so, round at least two corners, light is to be obtained for the centre of the ground floor. 2nd.—ln the first floor is a landing and a passage, 50ft. long, totally unlighted. 3rd.—The partitions of the bed-rooms over the kitchen for 21ft. are unsupported from beneath. 4th.—The kitchen chimney, winch is in the interior of the building, is not carried up beyond the ceiling, and in the upper floors is lost sight of. sth.—The drawingroom and dining-room chimneys, also in the interior, are lost sight of it the upper floors. Gth.—No chimneys whatever are shown in either sections or elevations. In one of the latter a chimney stack has been pencilled, but the sketch imperfectly erased. 7th. —The 24-inch brick wall between the drawi«g and card-rooms, on the first floor, is totally unsupported from below. Bth. The card-room is denoted as 18ft. long ; it differs, on the application of the scale, 4ft. from that measurement. 9th.—The greatest width of the passage to drawingroom, dining-room, and supper-room is 3ft. 9in., and is in some places only 3ft. 3in. wide. 10th.—The walls of the staircase a rectangle. The stone lantern above is circular. How the square form of wall is modified into the circular is not shown in either plan or section. 11th.—There is no door or means of commuication from the " orchestra staircase" into the jnusic gallery or orchestra. 12th.—The main roof, for 21ft., does not appear, acccording to the section, to be in any way supported. 13th. —Two windows appear in the elevation that are not shown in the plan. 14th.—No external door to scullery. 15th.—Passage to Governor's and Private Secretary's rooms unlighted. 16th.—One blank door and nineteen blank windows are on the several fronts of the building. Eleven blank windows, glazed, but with stone walls behind them are arranged for the principal front of the building. We have alluded, sir, to these defects, not from any desire to be severe on Mr. Mason's work, but in order that your readers may fairly judge of the " practical ability" of the gentleman who has gratuitously made himself the critic of our design. We are, Sir, your obedient servants, C. Heafhy & J. Barer. Auckland, Sep. 23, 1853.