5
the centre of the dead wall, is a door approached by steps, and on the
landing inside the verandah is the foot of a stone staircase leading to the
upper floor, whilst facing the doorway are two rooms opening into a third, which are
divided from the barrack-room by a dead wall—these form the quarters of a married
serjeant; whilst under the staircase on the north-east end is an approach to two
rooms which project from the building, and which are so small as, in my opinion, to
be utterly unfit for occupation by British soldiers, being only 12 ft. 7 in. long by 5 ft.
wide. The barrack-room consists of a large room, the upper floor being supported
along the inner walls by open masonry pillars and by a row of wooden pillars running
down the centre of the room around which the arms are stacked, whilst between
these pillars are gratings for the men to keep their kit upon. The verandah space
on the east and west is thus thrown into the room, but the outer wall of each
verandah is enclosed by venetians. The barrack-room is thus very broad, and
the only means of ventilation is through the venetians in the outer walls of the
verandah. At the south side the three last arches are walled up on either side, as
on the east side the corresponding portion of the verandah was formerly used
as an ablution-room, as was also a projection corresponding to the one on the
north-east corner of the building. The ventilation of the room is still further
obstructed by the staircase fronting the south wall which leads to the upper
storey, and below this there are at the south end of the west verandah three small
rooms which were formerly used as private ablution-rooms, but now that detached
lavatories have been provided these rooms are no longer wanted; thus, at present,
the only means of ventilation to this end of the barrack is through the door
leading to the south end. My recommendations as to the action required re
-garding the lower floor of these barracks are the following :
—
( a).—Remove the dead wall at the north end, and throw the present serjeants'
quarters into the barrack. I make this recommendation, because
the serjeants' quarters are not proper places for married or even for
single men, as only one of the three rooms—namely, that facing the
north-west—has any ventilation whatever. The other two rooms are
entirely enclosed, and without any means of ventilation in either.
One of them is used as a bath-room, but there is no drain to carry
away the dirty water. There is no privy; and the women and children
are obliged to go to the latrine attached to the patcherries. Besides,
by removing this dead wall so much more space is thrown into the
barrack, and the ventilation on the north, now blocked up, would be
much improved. If absolutely required, a detached building might
be provided for the serjeant on the flank of the barrack.
( b).—Remove the staircases from their present position and place them in the
projection at either end of the building. This would do away with
the objectionable little rooms on the north and south-east, and would
be an immense improvement to the ventilation of the barrack.
(c).—Provide foul-air extracting shafts to run straight through the upper
floors and roof, out into the external air.
( d).—Remove the fixed venetians in the verandahs, and replace them with
vertically-revolving venetians for a height of 7 feet from the floor.
( e).—Fix revolving fan-lights over every window.
(f).—Remove the ablution-rooms on the south-eastern end of the verandah,
and open out the masonry arches on either side of the barrack-room
opposite the three last beds.
(g).—Remove the three rooms on the south-western side of the verandah,
and make the verandah a clear space all round the barrack.
(h).—Make all the windows now fixed to open.
B 116—2