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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8985, 20 November 1907, Page 4

A- few days ago a cable message announced that the building commission at New York had decided that buildings should not exceed 250 feet in height owing to the great risk of calamitous fires. The craze in New York for the "erection of "skyscrapers" has of late increased to such an extent that twelve-storey buildings are looked upon as pigmies. The Singer Company's new factory contains 41 storeys, and reaches the dizzy height of 658 feet. So greatly have these "cloud-capped terraces" multiplied within the last few years that the president of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters has just prophesied a great disaster if a large fire ever starts in the top storeys of a nest of such buildings. Firemen could not effectively reach the locality of the fire, and automatic, sprinklers would be of no service. It is reckoned that a conflagration amongst such edifices might destroy property to the extent of from one to two billions of dollars, besides sacrificing thousands of human lives. The ooard recommended the limitation of the height of buildings to 125 feet. The building commission has not seen fit to go quite so far as the board recommends, • but in fixing the limit at 250 feet it is doin'g something in the direction of reducing the risks of a terrible catastrophe.

Some people like to acquire cheap popularity. It appears that a great many members of the Seddon Memorial Committee have not only never attended a meeting of that body, but have not even contributed towards the fund. It is, therefore, hardly 10 be surprised*at that, with the lukewarmness of members of the committee, there should be so little enthusiasm on the part of the public. Of course there are other and ,perhaps stronger reasons for the public apathy in regard to the memorial fund; but it is not creditable to the organisers of the movement that the secretary should, have to report "that a great many who were on the committee had never attended a meeting ai".<s had not* subscribed anything." A suggestion was thrown out at the meeting of the memorial committee held in Wellington on Monday that the Tames of the members of the organising body who had not subscribed should be published. Objection might well be taken to a proceeding so drastic, but the general verdict would probably be "serve 'em right!"

The Railway Classification Bill is meeting with objection in various parts of the dominion, and members, we are told, continue to receive many telegrams irom men in the railway service protesting against the measure. The Leader of the Opposition has received so many that he is unable to reply to all. The latest is from a meeting of guards, protesting that the increases in the bill are much too small. The guards consider that they should be classed by themselves, and not counted with shunters, storemen, etc. The telegram states that the feeling of the meeting was that it was an insult to offer guards £4O per annum less than letter-carriers.

A new source of dissatisfaction nas cropped up in Wanganui in regard to the Railway Classification Bill. It would appear from a telegram from Wanganui, published in another column, that certain officers at; the head office have been wiring to juniors urging them to accept the Railway Classification Bill in its present form, If this is §<?, it is

very reprehensible, and the Minister of Railways ought,to take steps to prevent undue influencing. It is hardly likely he will do so, however as he himself has set an example of corec ion by threatening to drop the bill, which improves the condition of affairs to a certain extent—though still leaving it in a very unsatisfactory condition—if the men persist in their demands for further consideration.