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tinent at all. 1 et us be imbued with a national feeling and promote 
the use of our own produets. 
When one has the selection of one’s home, one should first con- 
sider the locality, then the street, and then the block, and it is fairly 
certain that one will considerably modify his requirements before a 
decision is arrived at. Means of access, distance surroundings, and 
healthiness have all to be taken into aocoount. But once having set- 
tled all these points, the actual home enclosure is one’s own particu- 
lar business, and if one is not competent to deal with that himself, 
the obvious method is to consult an expert adviser, or to employ 
him altogether. But whoever the adviser may be, let it be certain 
he is not what is known as “a practical man.” He is as ignorant as 
a Bolshevik, and as brainless as a kewpie. He is not practical, but a 
vain fool, and taking his advice generally entails wasted expense and 
dissatisfaction. 
I am confining my future remarks chiefly to the metropolitan 
area, as the subject is too vast to travel over the State. 
The foolish stereotyped method of subdividing land without res- 
pect to local features or contours, and blocks in the one locality being 
ail of the same size, makes the choice of a building site very trouble- 
some. Until town planning lias been in vogue for many years one 
will have to submit to the evils resulting from this method, and suffer 
the harassing restrictions of antiquated municipal by-laws. These 
are benefits of civilisation which we shall probably confer on the 
inhabitants of our about -to-be-acqui r*d German colonies who are 
at present living the liealtv life that all uncivilised aborigines enjoy. 
A chain frontage is, I think, the least one can put up with. 
The usual 40 or 50 feet block is really too narrow for an ordinary 
house for a family of, sav, six persons in comfortable circumstances. 
One’s neighbours are too near, and there is not sufficient room to 
properly adapt the bouse to the proper aspect for the various com- 
partments. The result is that one sees so many houses which are, 
so to speak, “too big for their hoots.” This is notably the case in 
the most sought.-for localities. Houses for artisans have in this res- 
pect, a distinct advantage over others, and many of them are well 
and pleasantly located. But the professional man or the business 
man, who likes two or three sitting rooms, has a trouble in settling 
a house of his requirements on a block of such restricted frontage. 
This brings about the congested appearance that some streets pre- 
sent, and it produces monotony in that there is not sufficient space 
around the house for shrubberies, etc., which so largely conduce 
to the- health and charm of a dwelling. The setting of a house is 
as important as the architectural features, which should be as few 
as possible, and altogether it should display dignified simplicity. 
One or two extremely plain looking houses about Perth strike me 
as particularly charming on account of the free-and-easy, not stiff, 
arrangement or want of arrangement of trees, shrubs, and walks. 
