TOWN HALL OR CITY HALL.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14919, 18 March 1914, Page 2

TOWN HALL OR CITY HALL.

TO THE EDITOR OT "TBK PRESS."

Sir, —From time to time allusions are made to the absence of a municipal hall suitable to the requirements of this advancing city, and comments are made on the inconveniences caused' thereby, as also on a certain loss of civic prestige. Recently fresh interest has been evoked in a scheme destined to wipe out this reproach, and which has the sympathetic approval of the Mayor and Corporation. The general public also are gradually realising the necessity of taking some decisive steps in the matter, and it really seoms as if tjlo time wore within measurable distance when such a structure will be one of our city sights and proudest boasts. So far the project is always referred to as the Town Hall. Now, Christchurch is a Cathedral City, and an important one; destined to greater importance in years to come. Our newhall will not be erected in a small provincial or inland town, but in a large and growing centre already constituted as a city, and should therefore receive the nomenclature to which it is entitled. No city abroad, either in Great Britain or America, would so stultify itself as to give its chief municipal building the lesser rank of Town Hall. There may be exceptions to this general rule, but I have not met with them during a somewhat extended course of travel. Town Halls are confined to towns, however large and prosperous they may be; but cities possess City Hails or Guild Halls, or else some distinctive title, such as St. George's Hall, that magnificent administrative edifice in Liverpool. So before our present castle in the air actually materialises, let us, one and all, look forward to it as our coming City or Civic Hall, and continually think, speak, and write of it by that designation. By so doing our conceptions of its dignity and importance will be raised to a higher level, and by scouting any lower status for the handsome and spacious structure soon to adorn our midst, we shall tho better testify our civic pride and confidence in this our well-loved city of the plains. —Yours, etc., M. B. March 17th. 1914.