BUILDING AND ’QUAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 700, 27 June 1929, Page 18

BUILDING AND ’QUAKES

EXPERTS TO EXAMINE PROBLEM MODEL SPECIFICATIONS Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. For buildings in areas which are subject to earthquakes a model set o£ specifications will be drawn up, and it is probable that these will be carried out in Nelson and on the West Coast. The recent ’quake has awakened people to the necessity of having a type of building which will resist earthquakes as much as possible. Following upon his suggestion, as announced previously, the Minister in charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Hon. H. Atmore, yesterday met a committee of experts on the question of making provision for buildings in the future to withstand shocks. Those present included the En-gineer-in-Chief of the Public Works j Department, Mr. F. W. Furkert; the Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr. E. Marsden; the Government Seismologist, Dr. Adams; Professor Speight, of Christchurch; Professor Cotton, of Wellington; and officers of the Government Geological Survey. The meeting was one preliminary to a gathering the Minister intends to call consisting, in addition to the interests mentioned, of architects, builders, brick workers, timber interests, iron and steel construction manufacturers and local bodies, for the purpose of framing a model set of specifications designed to withstand earthquake shocks. In a subsequent statement the Minister emphasised that while it might not be possible to undo the errors of faulty construction in the past, steps could now be taken to prevent blunders in building construction in the future. Fatalities resulting from earthquakes in New Zealand were few, but an ordinary earthquake might cause heavy casualties if “man traps’’ in the shape of an insecure and nonresistant class of building were set up in the future.