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ations were completed. The clay of which the walls are made is 

 of the common or garden variety, worked up with water into stiff pug, 

 carted in a burrow, and slapped up against the walls tier upon tier, 

 right round the house, until the required height is reached. The 

 finishing-off was done with lighter soil from the surface, and the 

 surface of the walls made as smooth as if they had been built of 

 brick and lime plastered. The construction of a place of this kind 

 is as simple as can be, and the only things I am particularly desirous 

 of impressing upon my readers are the precautions taken for keep- 

 ing the building cool. In order to explain these fully and clearly a 

 diagram is necessary. 



The diagram shows the outer wall of slab, the inner wall of 

 pug, and between the two an air space. If the clay is thrown up 

 against the \vood it will shrink away from it in drying and leave a 

 space of an inch or more. Leading into the house from as many 

 directions as possible are air channels formed beneath the ground. 

 These can be made of galvanised iron down pipe, drain pipes, wood, 

 or any handy material that w r ill secure the uninterrupted circulation of 

 the air. They should fall away from the house, and this can easily be 

 done, presuming the house has been built up on a rise and not down in 

 a hollow. The longer these channels are, the cooler will be the air 

 flowing through them. The arrows in the diagram show the 

 direction in which the air circulates. The hot air from outside 

 passing through these channels is cooled in transmission and passes 

 between the outer wall of wood (a non-conductor of heat) and the 

 inner wall of clay and along the channel under the ceiling (as 

 shown) and out through the roof. The ceilings are covered under 

 the roof a foot or eighteen inches thick with rushes, and a louvre 

 window is placed at each gable end. It is easily seen that the 

 hotter the roof gets the greater the circulation of cool air, and the 

 cooler the house is, provided doors and windows are kept shut and 

 the hot air excluded. In a house ventilated as this is there is no 

 occasion for gaping doors and windows always ajar. So long as 

 the outer air is hotter than that inside the house there is nothing to 

 be gained in opening the windows if the house is properly venti- 

 lated. The sides of the channel running under the ceiling are 

 perforated, and the hot air in the rooms escapes through this, and 

 is replaced by cool air from below. The proof of the pudding is in 

 the eating, and I have lived for years, and am still living in such a 

 house as I describe, and it is without exception the coolest house 

 in summer and the warmest in winter that I know. 



In putting up stables, cow byres, pig styes, and other farm 

 buildings, it must not be forgotten that the climate of this colony 

 does not necessitate elaborate buildings. It is veiy nice to have 

 substantial stables and out-buildings, but, at the same time, stock, 

 &c., will do here without them. At the same time it must be 

 remembered that the stock appreciate cool and shade in summer, and 

 warmth and shelter from the rain in winter, as much as we do, 



