ROMANCE OF PAINT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 343, 3 October 1932, Page 7

ROMANCE OF PAINT

FASCINATING HISTORY ITiS ANCIENT ANJ> MQDERN USES TO THE WORLD SOME QP-PO.RTUNE ADYIGE. The. average citizen wo'ul,d npt lopk to the paint and varnish industry for romance. We are all apt to think that romantic adventure is restrieted to the picture theatre or to the novel. As a matter of fact, every braneh of industry has its fascinating history. From the first crude efforts of primitive man to present-day scientific investigation is a long call. The adventures of and discoveries by men engaged in the industrial field are not one whit less exciting, to those who look beneath the surface, than other forms of human endeavour of a mora theatrical kind. Few trades have a more colourful history than the paint and varnish trade. Pigments were used by nearly all ancient civilisations of which any record remains. The Egyptians decoratcd the interior walls of the buildings with coloured frescoes, and the Greeks, as the writing of Xenophan and Vatriuvius show, knew how to make white lead and red lead, while the j 'Book of Kells'- reveals the artistie use j which was made of colour by the ! Celts. The Middle Ages, too, was a j colourful period, with its illuminatj ed manuscripts, stained glass windows, j gay clothes, and, as discoveries in Westminster Abhey rsvealed, brightlycoloured stone monuments. The fact that pigments are used by uncivilised tribes to-day suggests that their use has been known to man since the earliest times, and this belief is supported by the drawings in caves of the Neolithic age. j In these modern days, when one mentions paint, it is usually in its ap- ; plication to the walls of one's house, or other building, and in view of the | economic conditions prevailing at the j moment, the question of whether the j s^j'ving coat or two can be affovded is 1 a serious one. ( It is here that the recently-intro-duced No. 10 scheme for the rolief of unemployment hecomes of vital interest. Under this scheme much work which had hitherto been regarded as , "beyond one's means just now" be- ! comes possible, not only because of j the Government subsidy, which amounts to approximately one-third of the wages hill, but because of the extramely low prices (the lowest in twenty years) of material. This applies to almost every branch of work connected with building, including repairing, renovating, and "odd jobs." Another aspect of the scheme that is beginning to be more freely appreciated is the wide extent of the influence of a revival in the building trade. A Dunedin builder mentioned the other day that, on a small contract upon which he was engaged in the north end of the city, there had been no fewer than 45 men actually on the job at one time or another. And the ramifications of such activities are astonishing in scope, involving not only painting, but carpentry, plumbing, roofing, plastering, electrical work, gasfitting, brick-laying, fencing, glazing, and dozens of other hranches. So that the recently-published messages from the Minsiter of Employment (the Hon. A. Hamilton) and the Mayor of Dunedin (Mr. R. S. Black), in which they urge our citizens to take advantage of the No. 10 scheme while it is in vogue are particularly opportune.