FURTHER DEBATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 3000, 19 December 1935, Page 5

FURTHER DEBATE.

CITY COUNCIL TO-NIGHT,

POSITION OF DEPARTMENT,

The question of hoardings on Tamaki Drive will be brought before the City Council to-night, when a protest similar to that made by the Automobile Association may be made. But whether the protests will have any effect upon the Railways Department remains to be seen, because in the matter of the erection of hoardings, on its own property the Department is a law unto itself.

Not so the private citizen or business firm. Every municipal body has bylaws dealing with hoardings, and the restrictions exist with the one object .of preventing the promiscuous setting up of unsightly advertising posters, either on buildings or along city or country thoroughfares.

The contention held by local bodies is that in the matter of advertising hoardings the State should be. governed by the municipal by-laws. In May, 1932, when the Railways Department proposed to erect the present hoarding at the overhead bridge at Parnell a strong protest was entered, by the City Council, but beyond acknowledging the objection the Department took no notice and the hoarding was erected.

The Chamber of Commerce and other organisations have always been strongly opposed to "unsightly hoardings," and from time to time have discussed the position, but with little success. In the outdoor hoarding field the Railways Department can operate without restrictions, such as those to which the City Council subjects ordinary companies engaged in the same type of business.

"So long as those statutory provisions remain the only remedy is the growth of an enlightened opinion and practise among business people, whereby they will refrain from giving their business in the privileged direction," said a prominent business man this morning. He added that instead of Tamak Drive being a drive of scenic beauty, the Railways Department, if it pursued its present policy of erecting hoardings, would make the drive an "eye-sore."