BUILDING REQUIREMENTS OF SYDNEY. 1007 
and the suburbs abound with illustrations of the necessity for super- 
vision of some kind. 
Happily the sanitation of suburban buildings is better provided 
for. 
The Water and Sewerage Board has under its control, no less 
than fifty suburban boroughs, and in all these the same attention 
is paid to the efficiency of every detail of household fittings as in 
the city itself. 
Tt is not contended that for all these boroughs there is required 
a Building Act of the same stringent and comprehensive character 
as is applicable to a great city ; butit will hardly be disputed that 
the time has arrived when a modified and reasonable control should 
be vested in the Borough Councils, enabling them to regulate, at 
least the thickness of the walls, the construction of foundations, 
the cubic air-space of sleeping rooms, and some of the simpler 
provisions for preventing the spread of fire. 
In the more thickly populated boroughs the necessity for such 
an Act is very urgent. In those more recently brought into 
existence it would not, howeyer, be expedient to place too much 
restriction upon the pioneers of the locality, or to hinder the growth 
of small enterprises. Hence a Suburban Building Act should be 
so framed as to come into operation in any particular borough only 
by proclamation of the Governor in Council. 
Much has been written and been said about the necessity for a 
new Building Act for the city, and it must be admitted that there 
is great room for improvement. 
The lapse of thirty years since the passing of the existing Act 
should furnish us with a stock of experience as to the additions 
and amendments required to bring our laws more into harmony 
with present conditions. 
Amongst the questions of primary importance to be considered 
in the framing of a new Act is that of fire-proof construction 
more or less complete, closely connected with which is the limita- 
tion of the height of buildings, and the number of their storeys. 
In legislating on these points, however, much judgment is 
required, and a calm and dispassionate study of the somewhat 
conflicting interests which have to be reconciled is indispensable. 
The view of the expert firemen is, very naturally, a somewhat 
partial one. He looks at the subject from one point of view only, 
and his theories, if carried into practice to their full extent, would 
hamper very seriously the operations of the architect, and place 
grievous obstacles in the working of the businesses of the 
merchant and shop-keeper. The costliness of buildings would be 
greatly increased, and, generally speaking, it is doubtful whether 
the advantages sought to be obtained w ‘ould not be too dearly 
purchased. 
