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III.-WORK UNDER THE BUILDING ORDINANCE.
10. The Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, which came into force on the 21st of February, 1903, has been very drastic in its effect both with regard to new and existing buildings.
The Director of Public Works in his report for that year made the following
statement:-
"The effect of the new Ordinance, whilst imposing additional responsi- bilities upon those authorized under its provisions to practise as Architects, has been to largely increase the duties and responsi- bilities of the Public Works Department. In the case of numer- ous matters, powers of modification or exemption are vestel in the Governor in Council and, in numerous others, similar powers are vested in the Director of Public Works as Building Authority. Applications coming under the former class, except as regards the provision of back-yards, &c., which are dealt with by the Sanitary Board, are almost invariably referred to the Director of Public Works and have to be investigated and reported on by him and, in consequence of the great variety of conditions pre- vailing in the City, almost every case requires to be specially considered. Even in the case of matters coming within the purview of the Sanitary Board, the Director of Public Works must, in his capacity as a member of the Board, make himself acquainted with the circumstances of the various cases and is generally expected to express his opinion whenever any peculiar conditions occur. Under previous Building Ordinances, no ques- tion of compensation arose, but under the new Ordinance a number of provisions are specified with regard to which compen- sation has to be paid and all such matters have to be dealt with by the Public Works Department. Finally, the new Ordinance contains a much greater amount of detail affecting the construc- tion and arrangement of buildings than any previous Ordinance."
The appointment in March last of another Executive Engineer in consequence of the passing of this Ordinance and the proposal to carry out Improvement Schemes has to a considerable extent relieved the strain on the Department, but the amount of extra work entailed by it and referred to by Mr. CHATHAM has not been exaggerated.
Plans are now more expeditiously dealt with and the work facilitated by put- ting matters on methodical lines, but when they have to be considered by the Sanitary Board, the Building Authority and the Governor in Council, as very often happens, some delay must necessarily occur.
In the past year (1903) very few of the buildings erected were sufficiently advanced to receive completion certificates, and therefore the applications for these certificates under this Ordinance practically commenced this year.
Upon the necessary inspections being made, it was clearly shown that some of the sections of this Ordinance had not been carefully considered by the Archi- tects during construction, the consequence being that several slight contraventions had occurred.
where
Where it was desirable or necessary, alterations to comply with the Ordi- nance were insisted on, in some cases at considerable expense to the owner; however the infringement was trivial and the expense of alterations excessive, appeals have been made to the Governor in Council who where advisable made the necessary orders waiving strict compliance with the requirements laid down.
The existing buildings have chiefly come within the scope of the new Act in the matter of providing more light and open space. The number of these build- ings which have been altered shows an increase of over 400 on last year's returns, and in all cases substantial improvements have been made in the previously exist- ing conditions.