THE CITY BEAUTIFUL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1922, Page 22

THE CITY BEAUTIFUL.

A COMMONSENSE CITY,

(By TE PAKEHA.)

We are cursed by noise. The trams roar through the streets. The motors go shrieking, with exhaust full open, up the rise, and the cars come round the corner with a howl. Truly it is now a regulation grunt; formerly it was a shriek in every key; and the wearied citizen goes home to bed. Next day he goes to the doctor, and complains that his nerves are not what they used to be. Tbe doctor looks grave, orders him to the country for a rest, and his bill looks graver. All because we, as a city, are cursed by a lack of that uncommon sense, called commonsense.

Wellington once held the palm as the noisest and most rushing town in the Dominion, but that honour ha 1 ? long fled North. If any street can be noiscr than Queen Street it must be Tin Can Gully. Every thing rattles; even the flags beat a tatoo. Yet so much could be avoided if there were a few commonsense regulations framed by people whose ears were sensitive to the hideousness of discordant sounds. Why should any person be allowed to break every knowlaw of rest when he is not permitted to flout other laws of health? Can it be that we, as a city, have come to believe that noise is essential to a big town. Quite recently a motor-cycle and sidecar came round into Shortland Street. The rider opened the exhaust and took the rise in a fury of noise that deafened everyone within reach. The chair certainly had a loud placard which shouted in letters a foot square somebody's desire to clean the world. But was that any reason why citizens' nerves should be ravished to provide a free advertisement. Even free advertisements can be bought too dear, as our American friends are finding out.

We apply the rule of commonsense to our own lives. Why do we not use it in onr community _fe. Vv c live in a nearly tropical clime. We ride home in a tramcar, closed, barred and reeking with heat. The sun pours in to add to our misery. There are no blinds. Auckland, being a poor city with little money to spare, cannot supply her citizens with the luxury of a shade from the sun. All other cities, where the sun is much less loving, not only supply shade from tho Bun, but seats open to the air and roller blinds that actually work. Commonsense would naturally suggest such an innovation, but commonsense is an unusual sense in municipal life, else why should the dust carts be elevated upon two high wheels', instead of four- low ones. Perhaps it is that the employees may become well developed in the chest by overhead action. Or that the refuse shall be able to blow about more freely, so that the city shall not be wholly deprived of the drifting bit of paper. What prevents the Aucklander from alighting at one end of the car while the inboard passenger pours on at the other? This, of course, would do away with much of the unseemly scramble that takes place at any crush time. Of course it would spoil the amusement for everybody—except those taking part. Commonsense might interfere with this form of city enjoyment.

Why do we always act as if it was the jdb of the other fellow to "run" the city; our city? One thing ought to have come home clearly to the Aucklander recently. It is the need for some power which gives the man who pays the rates a more personal feeling in the well-being of his city, a more keen community life. To achieve this he mnst possess more control over the man who is elected to spend the rates. The sheds on tho waterfront are a strong case in point. They are objected to by the mass of citizens, but they are still there —and will be.

Campbell's Point was another case. A more scandalous piece of vandalism than its destruction was never perpetrated by any city.

There was a time in our political history when one of the moßt dignified of our legislators was caricatured returning to the House with his two pet lambs, the Referendum and-the Recall. These two reforms have never reached the Statute Book. Can it be because there would be such an increase in the intellectual rubbish pits? Yet this would give into the hands of the people the control of their own affairs and effect many reforms. It ought not to be difficult to automatically clean every roll by just wiping away all names of those who failed to record their votes. The last poll is an instance of the lack of interest displayed by the city in its own affairs. What kills the community feeling? It is not for the general good that a few bear the burden. Democracy aims at educating each to take a share, not only in paying the bills, but also in arranging how the money shall be expended. Commonsense tells us that a burden shared is a burden lightened. Do we apply this unusual sense to our community affairs. All those who do not take enough interest to think on civic affairs and to record their opinion should automatically cease to have power. Then those who have not the good of the city at heart would cease to be a drag on the wheels of progress. It should not be the thoughless, the uneducated in the aesthetic, the careless and the lazy, but the thoughtful, the intellectual and the lover of the beautiful, whose opinion should count. At least it would be so in a commonsense city.