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not now exist in such strength as formerly, because, although really efficient workmen are still very difficult to procure, there are now in this country many Europeans of experience who, by their superintendence and direction can efficiently cause to be executed almost any species of building. For merely temporary buildings it may still be, on account of its cheapness, the best, but if the construction is to have any pretensions to be a lasting erection, or one which has to afford effectual protection from outside disturbances, I have no hesitation in saying that the system is the most uneconomical. From the fragile nature of the materials which compose the outside casing, whether these are stone flags, tiles or merely plaster, the walls are in want of constant repair, and are never water or air tight. The wooden framework from its insufficient covering decays with great rapidity and it is in all points excessively and dangerously weak. The third reason in its favour, viz, its efficacy to resist earthquakes, is one which opens out a large field for discussion on which I may have something to say further on.
In copying this system of construction therefore I need not say that, in my opinion, the Japanese have been led into an egregious terror. And it is really a pity to see such buildings as the new Custom House and the New Town Hall in Yokohama, the new Government offices in Yedo, all of which should be buildings of real stability and durability, built on this principle. These erections have all some pretensions to architecture, they have each cost very large sums of money, and being efforts at improvement in the way of construction, it is most unfortunate that the system adopted was not one formed on a more sound and substantial basis.
Since the great fire which happened in Yedo in 1872, the minds of the local authorities there have been greatly exercised in reference to the construction of buildings which will afford greater resistance to the spread of fire. A very creditable effort has been made in the new Boulevard at Yedo—where small brick houses have taken the lace of the slight wooden erections which are general in
