[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—In reply to
your footnote to my description of a paper cottage built by me at Torrent Bay (near Nelson, N.Z.) in 1902, there was no perceptible movement—either expansion or contraction—of the paper, perhaps because it was so heavily coated with the sanded coal tar and so rigidly encompassed by wooden battens. In 1907 it remained a complete success. As to the general question of wood versus brick for house- building, the houses in Nelson were all built of wood and were nearly all roofed with corrugated iron. The town is naturally very picturesque, but, viewing it from the surround- ing hills, the effect is spoilt by so many commonplace buildings with tin roofs, giving it a " temporary " appearance. Roughly speaking, and for anything larger than a mere ',cottage, about £50 a room would be the estimated cost of a wooden house there. After we bad left Nelson for Picton (where the Queen Charlotte Sounds offered even better motor yachting) the tenants of our Nelson house one winter's evening started a kerosene oil heater in an upstair room with the window open. A sudden wind squall made the heater flare up, and it set things alight. The house in less than fifteen minutes was completely destroyed.—I am, Sir, &O., Bournemouth. H, RAINIER.
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