RURAL ATTRACTIONS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10826, 24 March 1932, Page 3

RURAL ATTRACTIONS

Campaign Against Hoardings. A .A. ASSOCIATION’S GOOD WORK The campaign inaugurated by the Auckland Automobile Association to preserve the scenic attractions of the roadsides of the Dominion is meeting with success and public sentiment is being aroused. Recently the A.A.A. communicated with the Honolulu Automobile Club where it was understood a campaign to curb the use of unsightly advertising hoardings had been very successful. In reply, the Secretary of the Honolulu Club writes:—-‘‘The subject has been successfully handled in Hawaii as a result of legislation fostered by the various organisations comprised of the leading residents of the Island. It is absolutely impossible to-day to erect a billboard or other unsightly type of advertising along the highways here and even though there were no definite law against it. public sentiment is so strong in this regard, that no business concern would dare attempt it.” Particulars of the successful campaign conducted in Hawaii have been forwarded To the A.A.A. In its recent official Bulletin, the Association quoted His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, where he stated that poster advertisements erected in the beautiful spots of New Zealand's countryside were a serious deterrent to the development of profitable, tourist traffic. The recent prosecution conducted by the Matamata County Council against a person found nailing advertising signs on a tree in the Maiuaku Bush should be sufficient indication that the time when the indiscriminate placarding of highways with advertising notices will be permitted, is now past. The Automobile Association has since its campaign started, received advice from at least two prominent companies that they are prepared to withdraw their advertising hoardings where it is found such hoardings mar the beauties of the countryside.