THE NEW UNION BUILDINGS. 147 



of the freedom of the Union, and to exult in the deliverances of 

 rhetoric and poetry and music. And as they so assemble, ranged 

 in full view of the statue of royalty, will have not only forcible 

 rem-inder that duty to the Sovereign and to the Empire are of 

 supreme importance ; but a keener sense of largeness in the abstract 

 and of the larger issue of things South African will be aroused and 

 deepened. Fittingly that symbol of constitutional government is 

 centrally set on the frontage line at a point conspicuous from every 

 direction. And though that royal statue be of heroic dimensions 

 it will give a sense of scale, as well as tone, to the whole composi- 

 tion. That the dome-capped Ionic rostrum should be practically, 

 Lhough not absolutely, at the crossing of the axial lines, is eminently 

 suggestive, for upon the sway of speech so much depends. And 

 I also note that that rostrum is the axis from which all ministerial 

 haunts (apart from the ministers' respective chambers), whether 

 for purposes of conference, committee, study, recreation or refresh- 

 ment, radiate. 



To what extent, if any, the few poetic facts I have stated 

 swayed the architect's mind I have no knowledge ; nor do I know 

 whether the double-breasted Kop (with the selection of which for 

 the site of these buildings I have heard he had much to do), sug- 

 gested to the mind the two great peoples from one common stock 

 in this Southern land. Or, following that symbolism, that two 

 practically identical blocks based upon the grace of the mind- 

 diagram of the Greek ought to be planned, and moreover be united 

 by the curve, which, indelibly stamped in the mind of the Roman, 

 meant (and is still meaning) so much in the way of law and order 

 for civilisation. 



Yet there is one thing I do know regarding the architect and 

 this master-piece, viz., that he has seen fit to keep in reserve that 

 adaptation of South African architecture which he has made so 

 peculiarly his own ; recognising that in the magnificent commission 

 entrusted to him there was an imperative call to go back towards 

 the beginnings of the Empire, and base a design on architecture's 

 deepest Imperial principles, the problem being the disposition of a 

 mass of Executive and Administrative Offices (each well-lighted, 

 ventilated and readily accessible), in a form that would possess a 

 considerable element of monumentalism. 



Towards the achievement of that disposition, from the main 

 axial line, with an inner radius of 138 feet, has been struck a semi- 

 circular block, 34 feet in depth, and screened on its southern sweep 

 with a colonnade the height of the two upper stories. Beyond, on 

 either side, extends a block with a frontage of 305 feet and a general 

 breadth of 138 feet, while the horizontality of this hill-set structure 

 of 9x5 feet is relieved at the internal junctures by towers. The 

 curved section is essentially ministerial, and is approached on its 

 northward side by a high level road that gives immediate access 

 on to the first floor, upon which the bulk of the Ministers' Chambers 

 is placed. 



At the most northerly point is situated a 12-columned circular 

 porte-cochere some 36 feet in diameter, from which, after passing 

 over a low-level roadway, a great triple colonnaded vestibule is 

 reached. This (entirely open northwards and southwards) is in 



