BRICKWORK. 919 



Present State of Brickwork. 



From the past let us glance at the present, and then we 

 may perhaps be possessed of sufficient data to g'uide us in 

 speculating on the future possibilities of brickwork. Surely 

 it would be no difficult task to picture in our minds a typical 

 modern bi'ick building", — ^not an isolated example, but one of 

 a type which prevails in almost every Australian City, and 

 for the matter of that in the towns and cities of many other 

 countries also. 



Some little time ago I was much amused at hearing a 

 modern writer of fiction term the reign of George III. " the 

 reign of ugliness;" but if 1 was asked for the most appro- 

 jiriate designation of the present architectural age, I should 

 have little hesitation in dubbing it " the reign of decejition." 

 We would not now tolerate miles of bald and unlovely 

 Gower-street fronts, with their never-ending straight lines, 

 square window and door slits, and monotonous bricky tinge ; 

 yet our average bi'ick building is constructionally inferior to 

 the Georgian type, although we are unceasingly attempting 

 to persuade ourselves of its vast superiority. We place 

 deceptive masks on our modern brick buildings, and follow 

 up the farce by calling them Greek, Roman, Renaissance, or 

 Queen Anne, but in each case the mask is slightly askew', 

 and we recognise familiar features and a well known voice 

 chuckling — " I'm 19th century for all that — is not it a good 

 deception?" But why is the modern character so indelibly 

 written on the average brick building? Simply because 

 every nerve is strained, not to give a faithful material, not to 

 ])rovide the most durable and rational construction, but to 

 erect a building which shall seem better than it really is. 

 Every eftbrt is made to produce material at as low a cost as 

 possible, and consequently its efficiency must be impaired. 

 It would be unreasonable to expect a brickmaker to concen- 

 trate all his energy in the production of an unsurpassable 

 article, when the first and sometimes only question an intend- 

 ing purchaser will ask is the lowest figure per thousand at 

 which the bricks can be supplied. Occasionally the quality 

 of the material may be a matter of ini])0itance with brick- 

 buyers, but as a rule, if the article is cheap and passable it 

 will not be considered whether the bricks were the most 

 suitable and best procurable or not. Little wonder, then, that 

 the average building is composed of bricks and mortar also, 

 which in more resjiects than one might have been greatly 

 iniproved had sufficient inducetnent been ottered to the pro- 



