46 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



require to enable him to oust the British shopkeeper. It is high 

 time this aspect of the case was seen to. 



It is remarkable how apathetic the public frequently is in 

 matters vitally effecting the architectural beauties of the particular 

 city in which they pass their lives, and in which their children's 

 children may live after them. The building public, or that intel- 

 ligent portion of it, which is able to distinguish between noble and 

 ignoble work — between that which is refined in design, and that 

 which is vulgar, garish, and unlearned, should, in so distinguishing, 

 resolve to place their work where it will have capable treatment, and 

 where the expenditure they incur, will not only result in satisfaction 

 to themselves, but in adding another ornament to the town upon 

 whose attractions and prosperity their own so much depends. 



Given like materials, good design from both constructional and 

 aesthetical points of view, seldom costs more than bad, and very often 

 less. But architects themselves have a duty to perform as well as 

 the public. They must strive by their own endeavours to educate 

 the public taste, or how else are they to look for the encouragement 

 they cry out for. Let them strive to make their buildings beautiful, 

 to imbue them with the impress of their purpose, to impart to them 

 the dignity arising from simplicity, noble proportion, and purity of 

 style, rather than to revel in the wealth of superfluous and meaning- 

 less ornament, which one sees bespattered over so many of them. 

 Let us make them bright, airy, cheerful, wholesome, and elevating, 

 and without struggling for originality, throw some of our own indi- 

 viduality into them, where we think it good. We shall then, while 

 looking to others to play their part, fairly meet our own responsi- 

 bilities, remembering the imperishable character of the records of our 

 time, which we are leaving behind us. 



