BAN ON BRIGHTNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 210, 5 September 1930, Page 6

BAN ON BRIGHTNESS.

We are often told that in its externals modern life is drab, and we are urged to put more colour into our dress and our houses. Yet when the shop girls of a Wellington drapery house chose to dress in colour instead of the regulation black, the Labour Department prosecuted the firm for-a breach of the* award. Everybody will be pleased to learn that the case was dismissed, with costs against the Department. The same day the Auckland City Council passed by-laws restricting the use of colour in public signs. There is, in principle, a good case for the regulation of openair advertisements. Grave injury has been done to the English countryside by the erection of advertisements, and some of the advertisers themselves, with commendable public spirit, have taken down these signs. There are advertisers who would be quite willing , to lease the side of Rangitoto for an adjuration to buy Somebody's Pills for somebody's ailments, but public opinion would not tolerate it. Similarly, one can sympathise with the city resident who has to live opposite to the flaming colours of a petrol station or a large wall that blossoms permanently in purple and red. The difficulty, however, is to know where to draw the line. It is possible for any colour to be beautiful—in certain conditions. The City Council's intentions no doubt are admirable, and it is refreshing to find it showing such solicitude for the artistic amenities of life, but it is laying up much trouble for itself.