922 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



tuck-pointed. This means washing over the bricks with some 

 colouring material, raking out the mortar joints and then 

 filling them with a stopping of the same colour as the bricks, 

 after which thin white lines are run along the joints to imitate 

 fine mortar. This cannot be considered a truthful mode of 

 construction. It is an attempt to make the work look better 

 than it is. Besides, tuck-pointing is not sound work : sooner 

 or later it will disclose its artificial nature, and no tuck- 

 pointed building will ever beautify with age like plain brick- 

 work. A few years will suffice to make a neat cement or 

 tuck-pointed front look shabby ; but to no other building 

 material does the mellowing effects of time deal more kindly 

 than with sound honest brickwork, toning down hard lines, 

 and subduing tints too bright, or adding that picturesqueness 

 which time alone can give, but never making the work look 

 mean. 



I do not like tuck-pointing, but practical experience has 

 taught me that it is an evil which the architect must frequently 

 endure if he would save himself from something worse. In 

 the majority of cases in Australia it is not possible to get 

 bricks and mortar of such a quality as to warrant the non- 

 requirement of the tuck-pointer's services. There are, how- 

 ever, exceptions to every rule, but only once have I had the 

 good fortune to supervise a non-tuckpointed brick building 

 in Tasmania with which I felt perfectly satisfied. I refer to 

 the Roman Catholic Church " Star of the Sea," recently 

 erected at Burnie. 



In this instance the bricks were almost perfect, fairly true 

 and even in size ; they were of a rich, warm, and pleasing- 

 tone, not too glaring, and what is in this country unusual, the 

 tint was almost uniform. In addition to this the general 

 contractor and bricklayer were men who thoroughly under- 

 stood their work, and took a most praiseworthy interest in 

 rendering the building as perfect as it could be made. The 

 bricks were manufactured by Mr. W. Jones, of Burnie. The 

 terra cotta and moulded bricks were made by Mr. J. Camp- 

 bell, of Launceston. The general contractor was Mr. T. 

 Kenner, of Burnie, and the foreman bricklayer was Mr. J. 

 Hills, of Launceston. A sketch of a portion of this church 

 is among the drawings presented. 



Srick-eofrths. 



All clays are not equally suitable for brickmaking ; some 

 are deficient in the necessary mineral properties, whilst others 



