CHAPTER XII. 



FARM BUILDINGS. 



How TO PUT UP A CHEAP, SUBSTANTIAL, AND COMFORTABLE HOUSE 



The selector, in the matter of buildings, will necessarily be 

 governed by the capital at his command. Possibly a tent, a slab- 

 and-dab or log hut, or a tin shanty will be the first home of the 

 new settler, but let us hope that whichever of these is chosen will 

 soon give place to a more substantial and comfortable residence. 

 To the settler who can run to bricks and mortar or stone from the 

 very start I have nothing to say about house construction, as he 

 will be well able to secure the services of an architect, and be very 

 foolish if he does not. In this chapter I merely presume to offer 

 to the selector with a limited amount of capital a few suggestions 

 that will enable him to put up a house, costing little, and yet sub- 

 stantial and comfortable. While the climate of Australia is tropical 

 and sub-tropical, the style of architecture chiefly in vogue is essen- 

 tially that of the temperate zone. Why this should be I do not 

 know, but it has always appeared to me to be wrong. In building 

 a house, or rather, I should say, a home for the former frequently 

 means a place in which we intend other people to live, the latter 

 always an abode for oneself the chief things to be aimed at are 

 that it should be cool in summer and warm in winter. In order to 

 obtain this most desirable end, certain natural laws must be strictly 

 observed. These laws, as far as my experience goes, are more 

 honored in the breach than in the observance, in the construction 

 of dwelling-houses in Australia. Galvanised iron is very largely 

 used in the construction of houses in the colonies, and a more 

 unsuitable and really dangerous material for the purpose it would 

 be hard to discover. A " tin " house is cheap, and like so many 

 other cheap things, it is nasty. It is intensely hot in summer, and 

 equally as cold in winter, and death lurks in every joint of it. From 

 an hygenic point of view a tent is infinitely preferable, and a slab- 

 and-dab hut a palace by comparison. 



Milk is a peculiarly sensitive, complex fluid, and at once 

 affected by any marked variation in temperature. How very few 

 houses there are in Australia in which a pan of milk could be set in 

 any living room during the summer months, without its turning in 

 a few hours. There is always a place specially constructed, called 

 the dairy, in which the milk is kept. My argument is that what is 

 good for milk is good for man, the most sensitive and complex of 



