New Houses for Rabaul

Two of the houses being built off Mala guna Road, Rabaul, NG, for Administra tion personnel. Top is a 3 - bedroom house in course of construction; below, a completed 2-bed room house.

The houses are attractive and are built in the oiled timber which is the most popular building material for private or commercial pur poses in post-war Rabaul. These houses are such an improve ment on the tem porary houses that preceded them, any criticism seems mere quibbling. But on tropical standards, they are compact to the point of being crowded. In the 2bedroom house, the fuel stove in the kitchen (opening off the living-room) is likely to prove a central-heating unit for the whole dwel ling. There is virtu ally no verandah

space. However, each house is to have a septic tank and—pro vided that someone can devise a means of keeping up a water supply during the dry season—that is going to be a decided im-

provement on Rabaul’s present obnoxious sanitary system. The houses—around 19 in number —are' being built by Italian workmen under contract.

Mr. V. H. Long paid a compli ment to Territory drinkers when he returned to Sydney after man aging the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Rabaul for the last six months. He said their drinking was more “civil ised” than in Sydney. The Cosmo politan had no brawls and few drunks.