BEAUTIFICATION OF CITY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 3

BEAUTIFICATION OF CITY

ADVISORY COMMITTEE’S WORK MR T. H. LANGFORD’S REPLY TO “ THE PRESS ” The work of the advisory committee on civic beautification of the City Council’s expansion and development committee was outlined by Mr T. H. Langford (public relations officer) in a statement yesterday replying to a leading article in “The Press.” “The expansion and development committee recently devoted £lOO to the work of the committee, and has no intention of permitting it to die or its projects to be lost sight of,’’ he said. “If the editor of ‘The Press’ will induce support for them, he will assist the committee and, more important still, will thereby give the council a virtual mandate to carry out the suggested works.

“ ‘The Press’ is usually very careful and reasonably fair in its criticism of organisations or persons, but the article in this morning’s issue on the work of the civic beautification committee is hardly in line with its generally constructive articles,” said Mr Langford. “Newspaper reporters are always welcome in my room and I go to much trouble, to advise the public, through them, on all matters within the scope of the public relations department. Had they known the editor was going to deal with the matter referred to, the error that ‘the committee was appointed by the council’ would not have been repeated, as they would have been informed that it is a body composed of some of the most sincere men in Christchurch and was appointed by the Expansion and Development Committee. It includes architects, engineers, artists, businessmen, professors, two councillors being among them, and is approved by the City Council. “The committee is purposely ‘alarmingly.’ named, but I can assure the editor it is a very useful and active body—and names don’t matter much. For the second time, the editor has suggested that ‘they succeed chiefly in petty exploits of tidying up and ornamentation which make order tiresome and ornament vulgar.’ I wish to inform the public, through his paper, that these men are not tackling petty problems (although seemingly petty jobs, carried out, are often major improvements in a city), but immediately set to work to induce the authorities, through the preparation of maps, that major works should be undertaken; for instance, work that would make Victoria street less out of order and vulgarly oppressive than it is now.

“I would respectfully suggest to the editor and the interested public that he and they inspect, at this office, the work done in this connexion by Mr W. S. Baverstock, and later have a good look at the street itself. TheTown Planning Committee of the City Council had a special meeting to discuss it. The work of Mr R. S. D. Harman and Mr G. A. J. Hart in preparing drawings of a suggested Civic Centre and approach to it also draws attention to a city need of much importance. The presentation of such drawings to the council enables the council to arrive at decisions much more readily. Mr Harman is addressing meetings of many local organisations on this question, and I am sure the editor would be one of the first to applaud his public* spiritedness. Mr J. R. Templin has, on behalf of this committee, interested himself in the orderly planting of the public reserves on the Port Hills, and it is hoped, with the assistance of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Reserves Department, to make the area from Victoria Park to the Sign of the Kiwi and along the Summit road more attractive than it is today.” _______________