of the goldfields and the woodcutter's slab hut have more of fitness 
for the locality and circumstances than many of our ordinary houses. 
Our usual type of dwelling is derived from England, whereas 
our climate and ways of living call for an Italian house, with its 
piazza, plain elevation, and heavily projecting eaves. We have 
copied our verandahs and balconies from Holland and Germany, 
but the inside of the house is certainly English. There has been 
little attempt at designing a really Australian house. One might 
at first, glance say that the ordinary Queensland wooden houses are 
colonial, but they are not, their only idiosyncracv being the height 
they are built off the ground. This serves no good purpose, and 
only reminds one of the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings. 
Now, many of us are trying to copy some Californian type of 
house, but transplanting it from a block of an acre or two to one 
of 40 feet or less frontage only converts it into a curtailed mongrel. 
More especially, when the roof is covered with that material so much 
prized by Australians, viz., corrugated galvanised iron of Gospel 
Oak, Anchor, or Orb brand. It is hateful to look at, but fortunately 
it is no longer cheap. As an alternative, we sometimes use tiles, 
but that is because they come from France. If they had originally 
been made in Australia they would never have come into use, for 
the Australian is a free lover and prefers every country’s products 
to his own; even including soldiers’ wives. For this reason, there 
is still only % of a man to the square mile over the whole area of 
Australia. A country that is endowed by nature with very possible 
material for building, fitting and furnishing a house still rakes the 
furthest ends of the earth for them: as a nation I suppose we beat 
every other in our imports of those articles. My aim is to bring 
about the building of a house of Australian type with Australian 
materials, for Australians to live in. 
How bountifully we are supplied with forests of building tim- 
bers of every kind, hard and soft, and of the most beautiful in the 
world for furniture and cabinet work. Can we find anything hand- 
somer than the Queensland cedar or our .jarrah for red timbers, Tas- 
manian black wood, teak, or Queensland bean tree for brown, and ' 
all the varieties of light-coloured timbers for lining walls or ceilings, 
and for furniture'? Eight hundred catalogued varieties in Queensland 
alone! And yet we import “British oak” from Austria and Japan, 
fir from the Baltic, and oreg-on from America. Some makers are 
actually selling furniture made of Australian timbers under the 
name of English oak, as they know it will sell more readily than 
under the proper Australian name. Why did we leave off using 
locally-made pant iles and our fine old sheaoak shingles and take to 
galvanised iron, thereby encouraging people in the dirty habit of 
drinking roof water mixed with the blow-off from filthy streets! Tf 
a material or an article cannot be found or manufactured in one 
State, it is possible to get it from another, without leaving this Cm- 
