In recent years, newspaper research has been streamlined by digitisation and online hosting by PapersPast. This paper tests the reliability and credibility of reporting of extreme weather and climatic events through PapersPast to determine if newspaper research of past climate can be further streamlined. Searches were conducted through four early-20th-century Auckland newspapers, where counts of articles returned by key-word searches for particular periods were compared against periods of known extremes. We find that blind searches have only limited potential in identifying extreme weather and climatic events and that they are no substitute for thorough analyses of documentary sources.
The building requiring strengthening was one of a complex of five which make up the James Smith Ltd retail site in Wellington. It was constructed around 1908 of solid masonry walls with timber floor and roof framing supported on steel beams and cast iron columns on concrete foundations. The building is five storeys in height and is located on the corner of Cuba and Manners Street covering a total plan area of 620 sq metres. The building also has a basement which extends some 3 metres below pavement level.
Flooring is tongue and groove timber with a flat timber sarked roof.
As the other buildings in the complex were constructed around it the eastern boundary wall of the Winders building was demolished and its steel floor beams tied through to the new steel framed structures which had reinforced concrete floors, and the north boundary wall up to third floor level had large openings created in it. The facade walls have openings over about 25% of the projected elevation area with the windows being formed by arched brickwork.
When the building alongside was constructed in 1934 the parapet was modified to match the new facade adjacent, and following the 1942 earthquake when a significant degree of cracking was noted, a series of reinforced concrete horizontal bands and vertical straps was installed to secure the facade against face loading. There were also reinforced concrete bands placed on the remaining north masonry wall.
Apart from this damage which had been attended to and other maintenance matters the building was generally in good heart with little sign of settlement or distress.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.