THE NEW FRISCO.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2787, 8 May 1911, Page 3

THE NEW FRISCO.

f IRELAND. EARTHQUAKE-

PROOF

CELEBRATING ITS REBUILD-

ING

San Francisco, devastated by earthquake and fire in 1906, has hardly a sign of the calamity to-day, and its citizens have chosen aq effective method of demonstrating to the world their triumph over great difficulties.

They have decided to promote a great international exhibition in 191510 celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Mr A. H. Beethatn, a building contractor of San Francisco now visiting the dominion, states the merchants ot the rebuilt city, when they approved the exhibition project, raised lour and a-half milhon dollars towards the cost within two hours. " New Zealand, " , adds Mr Beetham, " made a bit ot a sensation by stepping in so promptly and being the first outside, applicant to get space." FIRE AND 'QUAKE PROOF. Profiting by experiencej there is no important building in the new San Francisco which is not fireproof. The visiting American, who lias a staff of 200 men engaged on his building contracts, states that earthquakes and fires are provided against by the construction of steel-irame buildings, the spaces between girders being filled with heavy mesh wire netting, into which is poured

concrete. The inside partitions are of terra:cotta-plastered. "There is no

scrim and paper now except in the mining towns," he added. " Signs of the old disaster? You could not get the faintest idea of it now. We had five or six broad-gauge spur tracks run through the city after the earthquake, and all the debris was cleared out to barges, to be dumped into the ocean."

This tremendous building activity has of course had its reflex in the wages ot the building trade employees. Carpenters are paid £1 a day, hod-carriers— who have a trade union described by Mr Beetham as •" a power," twenty-seven shillings a day, and plumbers seven dollars, or 29s 2d in English coinage. As for the cost of living, Mr Beetham states that a good meal can be got m the cheaper restaurants for sixpence, while a working man ought to get board at 25s a week.