Building Notes.

Progress, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 1 July 1918, Page 259

Building Notes.

AUCKLAND. A meeting was held last month for the purpose of furthering a proposal to build a new King’s College on the site purchased about a year ago at Otahuhu. The chairman Dr. A. W. Averill said that the present lease would expire shortly, and the question to be considered was whether the school should be given up or a new building erected. The amount required would be £50,000, and of that £14,000 was already subscribed. The new Children’s Hospital was opened early this month by Her Excellency the Countess of Liverpool. The new hospital, which was designed by the Hospital Board’s architect, Mr. G. W. Allsop, is said to rank as the largest and most up-to-date of its kind in the Dominion. It is a two-storey brick building, with external finishing of grey plaster at the base, and dark red in the upper walls. With smooth green lawn in front, wide balconies built out at either end, it presents a very fine appearance, and commands a splendid view in three directions, over the city, across the harbour, and out over the Domain towards Remuera. Above a handsome front entrance, will later on be erected statues of Nurse Cavell, a soldier and a sailor, these forming part of the scheme of furnishing undertaken by the Auckland Vaudeville Employees’ Association. The interior arrangements are thoroughly up-to-date in every particular, and nothing has been left undone which could add to the comfort of the patients or minimise the work of administration. There are four large wards, two on each floor, and also ten smaller ones for observation and isolation cases. In all, there will be accommodation for 70 children, although the number could readily be increased to 100, as there is amole room for extra cases. The balconies have been fitted with sliding windows, by means of which they can be converted into warm., closed-in playrooms on cold winter days. There are two kitchens, one to each floor, these being connected by a lift, also bathrooms in each ward, and speciallyfitted treatment rooms,.where the children will have their dressings, bandages, etc., changed, and other work done which is usually accomplished at much inconvenience in the main ward. The building will be heated throughout by hot-water radiators. A special feature of the new hospital will be the handsome furnishings and fittings. There are tiled dadoes throughout the building, while the floors of the bathrooms and treatment rooms are of the same material. The floors of the wards are hardwood. The whole building has been designed with the object of attaining the maximum of light and air. Between the smaller rooms, there are glass partitions, so that a view can be obtained of the whole length of the ward. The furnishings of the hospital was undertaken by the Auckland Vaudeville Employees’ Association as a memorial to the doctors, nurses, and men who have fallen in the war, a total sum of £:i,154 having been raised. The furniture has all been designed with a view to the special needs of children, and tin tiny chairs, tables, settees, etc., not only enhance the general appearance of the wards, but will be a source of much pleasure to the small inmates. According to original plans, the basement of the building was to have been used for pathological purposes, but it has now been decided to temporarily utilise it as accommodation for the nurses. Cubicles have been fitted, and there are at present a number of nurses in occupation, Mr. Belwyn Goldsboro’ called for tenders for new brick premises for Messrs. R. W. Hellaby at Green Lane last month. Messrs. Chilwell and Trevithick, A.R.1.8.A., called for tenders for a house in wood at Epsom. Messrs. May and Morran called for tenders for extensions to Mr. 11. Butcher furnishing warehouse, Karangahape road. Messrs. Hoggard and Prouse andW. H. A.R.1.8.A., called for tenders for a house at Remuera.

The Education Board's architect, Mr. W. J. Farrell, called for tenders for additions to school at Maungawhero, also for the erection of a school building in wood at Aranga, and additions to school at Ruawai.

The Public Works Department called for tenders for the supply of Hardwood timber.

Reporting as to the mode of heating the soldiers' annexe of the Auckland Hospital. Mr. J. H. Anderson, consulting engineer to the Public Health Department, has recommended that a radiation system be adopted, utilising steam direct from the hospital boiler. The approximate cost of the installation of the system is estimated at between £7OO and £750. The Hospital Board resolved that the work be proceeded with immediately.

CHRISTCHURCH.

The plans which have been approved by the Minister in charge of Hospitals (Hon. G. W. Russell) for the new morgue for Christchurch, are being completed at present wi-h the view of tenders being called for at an early date. The building, which is to be erected on the site in the hospital grounds previously occupied by a similar building, is estimated to cost £2 500, one-third of which amount is to be found by the City Council and two thirds by the Hospital Board. The plans make provision for a mortuary containing: twelve benches; it will be tiled with white tiles for a distance of six feet from the floor, which will be of ordinary red tiles. There is to be a room for the reception of cases which have died from infectious diseases and another room for the reception of bodies of per-

sons who have been drowned and which have not been recovered for some days; a disinfecting bath will be provided in this room. There will be also rooms in which post mortem examinations can be made, and also an instrument room. Accommodation will also be provided in the shape of a waiting room for relatives visiting the morgue.

The committee of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College reported at a recent meeting that they had set up a joint committee to consider and report upon the laying out and planting of the site, the locality of the buildings, etc., of the property lately purchased for the Boys' High School at Kiccarton, and having offered prizes of the value of £3 3s. and £1 Is. for competitive plans by the architectural students of the School of Engineering, for plotting and laying out the grounds, situation of the buildings, etc. The report was adopted.

The foundation stone of the new school at Sydenham was laid at the end of last month.

Mr. J. Jamieson, chairman of the Building Committee of the Education Board, gave some details of the proposed new school which, when completed, would provide 16 up-to-date classrooms, as well as offices. The first portion of the building to be completed would consist of four classrooms. There would be two on the ground floor 24 x 22 ft., and 26 x 25 ft., with headteacher 'a room, cloakrooms, and corridor, and upstairs two classrooms 34 x 23 ft. and 26 x 26 ft., with library and museum. The contractor was Mr. H. Hinkey, and the contract price for the whole building was £3,369, the heating costing an additional £320.

Mr. J. S. Guthrie called for tenders last month for residence at Sockburn.

Messrs. England Bros, called for tenders for the erection of a house at West Melton.

The Public Works Department called for tenders for the erection of a railway cottage at Waian.

A letter from the Education Board acknowledged a resolution passed by the householders' meeting urging the Board to push on with the erection of an up-to-date building for secondary teaching and home science, and stated that the

architect had been instructed to draw plans, and an application would be made to the Department for a grant towards the cost of the work.

The Opawa School Committee are about to interview the Minister of Education with reference to a new school building promised some time ago.

The Board of Governors of Rangiora High School have decided to erect a new up-to-date hutment for additional accommodation for the scholars.

Sixteen permits for buildings representing a value of £17,150, were granted by the City Surveyor last month. Five were for the central ward, representing a value of £IO,BOO, ten for the St. Albans, representing £6,000, and one for the Sydenham, representing £350. Mr. F. W. Armstrong, of 153 Hereford street, is calling for tenders for electrical installation for the Royal Exchange.

Tenders were invited early this month for alterations and additions to a house at FToun Bay by Mr. J. S. Guthrie. Messrs. England Bros, invited tenders for the erection of a Catholic High School at Upper Eiccarton. The Public Works are calling for tenders for the erection of a new Post Office at Papanui up to July 29th. A piece of land in Gloucester street, next to the Masonic Hall, has been purchased by the Returned Soldiers' Association as a site for new club rooms. The new building will be of handsome design, and will contain an office, billiard room, lounge, reading-room, writing-room, card-room, library, etc., and a memorial hall. The present club rooms have been found much too small and quite inadequate for their purpose, and the new building should prove as comfortable as those of its kind in the other centres. There is at present a boardinghouse on the new site, but this will be pulled down, and it is hoped that the Association will be housed in its new rooms early in the spring. In our notes last month a reference was made to some recent tendering for workers' dwellings in Kilbirnie, Wellington. We stated that "After Cabinet had authorised the expenditure, a contractor whose tender had been approved, asked for an increase of about £6O on each house over the amount that he had quoted in March last (about a 10 per cent, increase). He stated that this request was due wholly to the rise in cost of materials, and that his profit would be the same as it would have been on the original basis, if

materials had been available at the prices in his estimates. The Department declined the request. Negotiations are now in progress with another builder. We have received a letter from Mr. W. H. Winsor of Spreydon, Christchurch, who states that he is the builder referred to in the note, and that some of the information published by us was not correct. Mr. Winsor says: ' My original tender, (with a proviso that if any increase or decrease in the cost of material, etc., which might occur between the closing and acceptance of tenders, should be mutually adjusted) was sent in on January 15th, not in March, and this tender was for eleven houses, not six. On April 20th (three months after), I was informed that my tender was accepted for six of the dwellings. Naturally I pointed out the increased costs of several classes of goods, which any builder will bear me out, occurred in the price of plumbing, painting and paperhanging material, also hardware, and not the least, in timber, between these dates.

No reference to profits was either made, or even inferred. Having built a good number of workers' dwellings for the department in Canterbury, to the expressed satisfaction of the department's officers, T can only surmise that the facts have been somewhat distorted in their transmission to print. If the department are negotiating with another builder for the erection of these houses (which is entirely their own affair), then I am confident they are not using the same plans and specifications as they gave me, and in justice to a contractor, who, according to your remarks, appears to have been over-reaching in his demands, I think you should find this out and right what is, I am sure, an unintentional wrong.'' Enquiries at the Labour Department elicited the fact that the Government have since let a tender for 6 houses to the second lowest tenderer, Mr. Young of Lower Hutt, Wellington, and that the plans and specifications were subject to slight alterations only. We regret the error in the month which Mr. Winsor says should have been January not March. Prices of course, are particularly variable just now,

and no doubt Mr.' Winsor has a good claim for the extra ten per cent., but at the same time it looks as though this request was the cause of the contract being passed on to another tenderer. DUNEDIN. A definite step has now been taken by the General Committee of the City Council towards the establishment of a municipal fish market. The committee now recommends the council to instruct the town clerk to prepare the necessary Bill to be introduced at the next session of Parliament, giving the council statutory powers to deal in the fish industry in all its branches. This includes the establishment of cool stores, manure works in a depot (probably close to the foreshore, and also the establishment of at least three retail shops. The intention at present is to contract with the fishermen for the supply, and not to purchase trawlers. The Sanitorium Committee of the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board paid a visit to the institution at Pleasant Valley on Thursday. There are 45 patients receiving treat-

ment. Two rooms recently added to the nurses quarters are almost ready, and the new room in the administrative block will be finished shortly.

Tenders were received until noon on Thursday, July 11th, for the erection of business premises in Cromwell (reinforced concrete), by Messrs. Salniond and Vanes. A.R.LB.A. Tenders are invited for the erection (in wood) of a Methodist church at Ettrick. Tenders close on 25th of July. 1918. ■ HAMILTON. Mr. J. E. Chitty called for tenders last month for the erection of new business premises in Hamilton for the Earmers’ Co-operative Auctioneering Co. A recommendation that a grant of £SOO be made by the Auckland Education Board towards the Hamilton Manual and Technical School building gave rise to a lengthy discussion at a recent meeting of the board. It was stated by members that the board had no power to make such a grant, and it was finally decided to inform the Hamilton residents (hat if they raised £250 by private subscription a Government subsidy bringing the amount up to £SOO would be obtainable. HAWKES BAY. A proposal that the Natives of Hawke’s Bay should build a Maori Cathedral, where all important services connected with the Maoris could be held, has been made by Bishop Sedgwick The Natives at Moteo have considered the proposal, and a site has already been given. The same donors also offered 1,000 acres in the back country as a source of revenue on condition that the building was erected at Waipatu. The proposal is being considered in other districts. TE KLJITI. A suggestion was made at the Waikato Hospital Board’s last meeting that a hospital, costing £5,000 should be erected at Te Kuiti. WAIRAU. Tenders were invited last month for the erection of a laundry building at Wairau by Messrs. Crichton and McKay, 1’.R.1.8.A. WELLINGTON. At the Diocesan Synod held early this month, the Synod went into committee to consider the question of the Cathedral site. The committee are to report to the standing commitec within two months. Messrs. Swan and Swan called for tenders for the erection of a brick and concrete store at Petone. Mr. W. Gray Young called for tenders for the erection in brick of the first portion of the Normal school, Upland road, Kelburn.

The Public Works Department called for tenders for seating accommodation in the galleries of the new Parliament Buildings. Tenders are invited by Te Horo Co-operative Dairy Co Ltd. for additions to cheese factory.