Urban and Rural Amenities.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 14

Urban and Rural Amenities.

of Tris-Press yesterday ! noticed -wjitlrieaity ; the Christchurolt Branch J^. l the l9Yst planning Ipsfcitufe un&ni- 1 'to 'support- the South , $ 4 £'$Sy ' e 1 * ' ■>* 1 I a, J, ** V \ , iih i W , \

with it in its effort to " abolish public " hoardings and promiscuous and un- " sightly advertising." Although it is beyond doubt that public objection to misplaced and ill-designed advertisement has steadily increased and is now very, strong, it would be foolish to imagine that reform will come without much trouble. Everything that has been said—in these columns very often—will still have to be said again and again, not to convince the public, but to convince popular representatives in Parliament and on local bodies that the public will be satisfied with nothing less than action; and it is encouraging to fitfd that organisations like the Motor Union and the Institute are addressing themselves straight to political ears, politicians having on the whole neither much interest nor much competence in questions of taste, they are not easily persuaded that the public has come to detest at least one persistent exhibition of bad taste; but they have begun to move and should be helped and urged,. and harried where necessary, by every possible expression of public opinion, individual or collective. The competence of local bodies to direct the ornament of their areas, especially urban areas, was the subject of another discussion at the Town Planning Institute's meeting, when Mr R. S. D. Harman suggested that the Council needs the help of a well-qualified outside committee in deciding on sites for gifts to the City. The suggestion errs only on the side of modesty. The Council needs help not only in deciding on the site and on the design of gifts, but in many questions that arise out of ordinary business. Even those that utility brings forward are as often as not impossible to decide well without the help of trained artistic judgment; while in others, where the central purpose is to give some sort of artistic pleasure,, the danger of bungling is tremendous, and nothing is more painful than bungling "beautifi- " cation." The mistakes of both kinds from, which Christcliurch has * suffered strongly recommend Mr Harman's suggestion, which is not new here—it has been niade in these columns and by the women's branch of the Citizens- Association—nor is it untried elsewhere. It should be tried, and the new Council to be elected next month will make a good start by trying it.