After the report of the Literary and Social Committee was read, its acceptance was moved by Mr. Percy Oakden (V.P.), who referred in an appreciative manner to the conduct of the magazine.
P RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
He took great pleasure in vacating the Presidential Chair of the Institute and introducing his successor, Mr. Wight thanked the Institute for electing him to the Presidential Chair, and would carry out the combative policy of his predecessor in all matters affecting the welfare of the Institute and the profession.
EPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1910-11
MEMBERSHIP
Vahland (F'.) whose membership dates almost from the foundation of the original Institute in 1856, has resigned on account of retirement from active practice. The President (Mr A. Henderson), having served for 20 years, intends to retire from the work of the Institute within the next twelve months. As he leaves the Council, his colleagues heartily thank him for his valuable presidential services for the year, and for his wise and mature counsel, freely given for many years past, and express the hope that after the next few months, he can return to work with renewed energy.
ALLIANCE WITH THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS
PUBLIC WORK
Enormous sums of money have been spent in England and elsewhere to rectify the mistakes of the past in urban planning. This extension of the scope of the bill was therefore opposed by your Emergency Committee as soon as it came to know of the proposal. Due to the opposition that emerged at the time, the bill was not considered.
Although little has been done to consider the topic of legal qualification due to stress from other work, your Council collects data from different parts of the world. The establishment of a branch of the Architects' Technical Bureau in Melbourne has been considered for a long time, but the. The Trade Commissioner in Australia drew the Institute's attention to the deceitful methods used to skim off inferior continental imitations of British brand girders.
It is hoped that all members of the Institute may be fully aware of any attempt at fraud in this direction.
EDUCATIONAL
At the approaching meetings in Melbourne of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and the subsequent meetings of the British Association in Australia, your Council hopes that architecture will be given a prominent place, and that the members of the Institute will make efforts to achieve that result by preparing papers or otherwise. An invitation from the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, for members of your Institute to forward drawings for public exhibition in America, was not taken up on account of the short notice. Oakden and Campbell, on behalf of the Council, presented the work done during the past year in the architectural and building construction classes at the.
In the engineering program at the University, Architecture has been made a compulsory subject in the 4th year, civil engineering. As will appear from the accounts, the Council, believing that the work of the Students' Association is largely of an educational nature, voted £5 for 1910 to meet the demands of the Common Room Committee for the use of rooms for meetings. , in addition to handing over to the Society almost all of the fees paid by the Department's students to the R.V.I.A. In any case of improper use of an affix to the name of a person who is not a member of this Institute, your Council will be required to disclose.
Not infrequently additions are used in one part or another of Australia to infringe upon the right of the members of your Institute, and consequently of the profession generally.
LITERARY AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE
JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS,
A LONG THE BYE-PATHS
HE FEDERAL CAPITAL
COMPETITION
As directed by the Council of the R.V.I.A. was openly informed of the position, and communicated with the Institution of Engineers and the Institution of Surveyors of N.S.W., receiving in reply from those bodies an assurance that both would co-operate with the architects of that country. Little), on learning that the terms of the contest would be presented to the Cabinet the next day, arranged for the Deputy of his Council's Emergency Committee to interview the Minister before the Cabinet meeting. Within about an hour of the interview, the president of the R.V.I.A. Mr. Anketell Henderson) drew up a Memorandum of Procedure and sent three copies to each State in the Commonwealth for Architects, Engineers and Surveyors.
Yesterday afternoon our Honorary Secretary learned that the terms of competition for the design of the Federal City will come before the Cabinet to-day, and as we have had no answer to our repeated request for an opportunity to advise on the terms, we arranged to be referred to the to the minister. Therefore, since the federal government would have the right to use combinations of different plans, we felt that the increased premiums would be justified. Institutes in Australia are waiting, and the Home Office or Attorney General is entirely responsible for the delay.
In our next issue we hope to describe to the architectural world some developments that are likely to take place shortly in relation to the terms of the competition for the federal capital area.
T HE BUILDING STONES OF VICTORIA
THE SANDSTONES
Stawell.=This is a white, even grained stone, quarried at the foot of the Grampians, 17 miles N.W. The stone was used in Stawell Town Hall when the quarries were first opened, but much of the surface material was stained with iron. It belongs to the same series of sandstones as the Stawell Stone, and is probably of Carboniferous age.
A noticeable defect of the stone is the flow or false bedding, which is most pronounced during weathering. This, together with the differential iron discoloration of the layers, gives the stone, after it has been on the building for a very short time, a bad appearance. The stone is uniform in color, although gradations to the bluish-grey color of the stone in its unaltered state are discernible.
When rough-hewn, it weathers better than when smooth-hewn, as in the latter case it is prone to weathering due to the disturbance of particles near the surface of the stone during operation.
L EGAL RESPONSIBILITY OF ARCHITECTS
Justice Channell, "could not help seeing that the dry rot was caused by a collaboration between the foreman and the client. The witnesses agreed that the foreman must see in the details what the architect could not be expected to do. If the defendant had taken steps to ensure, that the first block was done in order, and had left the rest to the foreman to be done in a similar manner, he would have been in doubt as to whether the defendant was responsible.
The architect's excuse that he thought the clerk would make sure the floor was in order did not seem sufficient to him. He felt that the laying of the floor was not a detail that could rightly be left to the clerk. In smaller works, where no clerk is employed, it is true that the architect is solely responsible for good construction, but where the clerk is constantly on buildings of a larger class, there is a general feeling in the minds of the architect and the owner. equally, that a just and fair deal will be effected by the exercise of eternal vigilance.
It seems to us that the degree to which an architect can give a particular work should be precisely stated, and that when the question of supervision is settled, the client should know exactly what profession he is allowed to do in the architect's time. .
WEST AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
The state government has promised to debate the bill in principle with a view to it becoming government action in the next session. Council has been alerted to the unprofessional conduct of some architects working in Perth; The Victorian Institute, with whom we were notified, took action which resulted in the enforcement being stopped. Australia's state institutes have been urged to come together to draft a code of ethics for the conduct of professional business.
Early in the year the Royal Institute of British Architects drew the attention of this Institute to the fact that a new class of members had been created, designated as Licentiates of the R.I.B.A., and in reply to our proposal the nomination papers of all candidates appearing in W.A. At the request of the Perth City Council, a committee waited on the mayor and councilors to discuss the issue of standard street porches, and it was agreed that a general standard should be adopted without porch posts, and restrictive signboards on the lines of a design which was submitted by the Institute. It is desired to place on record the Council's appreciation of the services of the hon.
In conclusion, your Council wishes to express the hope that members will take a greater interest in the general affairs of our profession, so that the Institute may become a greater factor in promoting high ideals of practice and in promoting the study of the nob' _e art of architecture.
1911-1912 Persistent Link
