December 1959 School Magazine

December, 1959

Brisbano Girl!7' Grammar School Magazine

Brisban~ Girls:' Grammar School Magazine

December, 1959

America has gone so far as to construct a paper house. In 1922, Elie Stenman, unable to find timber for his house, decided to construct one of waste paper. Onto a wooden frame- work he nailed tough paper boards . Now, thirty-seven years later.' the famed "Paper House" in the New England village of Rockport, Massachusetts, stands as good as ~ew. " At Margate , New Jersey, is the celebrated Elephant House, an immense six-roomed building, in the shape of an elephant. Two of the twenty-two windows are large port-holes, forming the elephant's eyes. The only access to the building is through the two staircases in the elephant's hind legs, leading up from the back and front doors, whilst the top room, up in the howdah, is seventy feet from the ground. Many houses and cottages, dotted the whole world over, h ave been made by converting old railway carriages, trams, a nd even aeroplane fuselages into modern six or seven- roomed apartments . Some of these are set in beautiful sur- roundings, fronted by spacious lawns, and are often more comfortable than normal houses. Circumstances will always compel people to plan new and strange ways of constructing houses and, if time is taken to consider, it may be realized that the houses in this world of ours are much more varied than those of the "Three Little Pigs." "ARUAL" VI A.

boy's "meri" had followed him from the boyhouse with a red-hot fire brand to conclude a family argument, and in de- fence the boy had seized the carving knife. When a boy has been for sometime with one family, he becomes very loyal. One night Kemu thought he would warn my mother of a "Peeping Tom" in the district. He stood un- easily, not knowing how to express himself. Suddenly he ran out of the front door, pushed open some low wooden louvres and looked through, saying, "Boy, he come like this. He come this house, Sinnabada, you call me strong." When my sister was ill he sat all day long during what would ordinarily have been "walkabout time," weaving very cleverly from palmy rands, novelties he thought might interest her. Sunday for the most part is walkabout day and is put to very literal use. Often whole families tramp along the road- side. A tiny baby is carried in a bag slung from the meri's forehead while• a toddler-age picaninny is balanced precari- ously on top of sim~lar bag of provisions, and the responsibility of clinging on is entirely his. The police boy on point duty, standing on a box labelled "POLICE," and wearing long white gauntlets rea lly fascinated us. We will remember many of the boys quite clearly always. One day recently my small sister came face to face at the drive-in shopping centre with the boy who drove the school bus in Moresby and quite spontaneoudy they greeted each other with enthusiasm. Leonie Buchanan V C. STRANGE HOUSES. Convention demands that one essential of every family is some type of dwelling. Not all these are alike-in fact, some are really amazing. One such house is situated on nearby Bribie lEland. It is a round building with a flat-top roof, and its plate-glass windows reveal the winding staircase and ultra-modern furniture. On the beautiful shores of Lake Wakatipu, in New Zealand, there is an extraordinary house of bottles. The first eight feet of the walls are composed of 9,089 bottles, a ll cemented to- gether. Under the eaves, is another collection of bottles, lit by e lectricity at night. It is impossible to live in the "Bottle House," however, because of visiting tourists. South Australia boasts of a cottage, built on the same principle. This one, constructed by an old sea captain at a cost of £45, comprises a framework of ten thousand empty champagne bottles and a shingle roof. 32

R. HALDANE, VIA.

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