BUILDING AND ORNAMENTAL STONES OF N.S.W. 185 



so that action may be taken in future to preserve the 

 good name of our marbles, for the condition of things in 

 connection with the Post Office lamp pedestals is almost 

 world famed, and, unjustly, this inferior foreign material 

 has been assigned a New South Wales origin, when such 

 is not the case. 



Fortunately the smoke, fog and damp of the northern 

 climes is mostly absent in this sunny south, so that much 

 greater liberties can be taken with our stones in the matter 

 of climatic exposure, and so less fear is given to loss of, or 

 injury to colour by these adverse conditions, as the original 

 colour will not suffer so much from external causes alone. 

 One great advantage under which our architects work in 

 this country is that climatic conditions do not enter so 

 largely in constructional calculations as obtains in some of 

 the countries of higher latitudes, for we have a dry climate 

 such as also obtains in Rome and Egypt, where we know 

 that well preserved specimens of the architect's art have 

 been handed down through long ages, their preservation 

 being due to the arid state of the atmosphere. Thus our 

 architects have the opportunity of handing down their 

 ideals of beauty, cut in stone, to the admiration of coming 

 generations. 



One great advantage enjoyed by our architects in work- 

 ing in what may be regarded as a comparatively equable 

 climate, is that certain factors which must enter very 

 largely into the use of stone in colder climates are absent, 

 there are no extremes of heat and cold — factors which must 

 be studied when using stone where such occur, and such 

 terms as "an equal expansion" and "construction" rarely 

 give serious consideration here. When used for internal 

 decoration no heed need be given to atmospheric conditions 

 as the colour will if not injured by defective backing- 

 material almost invariably remain permanent, and a selec- 

 tion of stone, then, becomes merely a question of taste. 



