Hoardings Legislation.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19110, 20 September 1927, Page 8

Hoardings Legislation.

The latest issue of the City /Beautiful, the official organ of the Christohurch Beautifying Association, has something to say about hoardings which'should be given & wider publicity. First it points out that when Mr Lee introduced a Bill at the request' of the people of Oamaru "the original indention was more than half missed " owing to the apparent need to pander "to the Railway Department's policy "on the question." That Bill, however, as most of our readers know, was afterwards withdrawn on a promise from the Government that it would introduce the necessary clauses into the Counties Amendment Bill; and now that the Counties Bill is before the House, the City Beautiful adds: "It "makes one laugh rather bitterly to "see how our Oamaru friends have "been 'sold out' by the politicians" The expected provisions regarding the regulation of hoardings are contained in the Bill, but it is laid down that any restrictive provisions are not t° apply to existing hoardings or advertisements or a period of not less than five yea?s from the date of making the by-laws. In other words, as the City Beautiful so justly complains, " the hoarding mongers are to be given "a definite proprietary interest in "their hoardings for five years." Although Counties are given power to " regulate, restrict, or prohibit the " exhibition of advertisements in such "places and in such manner, or by "such means, as to affect injuriously "the amenities of any public place "used by the public for purposes of "recreation or enjoyment, or to dis- " figure the natural beauty of a land- " scape, or to obscure the view thereof "from any public place"—in brief, wide enough powers to keep the countryside as it ought to be kept—the fact that Councils in making any by-laws under this sub-section must expressly exempt any hoardings already in use for advertising purposes for such period as they-think fit, but for "not "less than five years from the com- " mencement of the by-laws," means that the inclusion in the Bill of these hoardings clauses was simply a waste of time, or worse. For we do not know what will happen or what Government will be in power before that utterly absurd exemption period has passed. A law that will not be a law for five or six years—except in such special circumstances as permit of no just alternative —is no law at all, and in the case of hoardings such circumstances do not exist. The Government could have met all the requirements of justice, and even of generosity, by making the exemption period twelve months, and the fact that it has not done so is a sufficient, and very unpleasant, indication of its real interest in the matter, .