HOARDINGS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 22

HOARDINGS

Sir.—May I express my appreciation •nd hearty support of your editorial • rticles condemning what is fairly described as an act of commercial vandalism at Parapet Rock. If the perpetrators remain insensitive to public feeling and mistake restraint for apathy, and if no lawful means can be found to have the disfiguring object removed, then there is a danger that considerations of competitive business may with other firms outweigh better feelings, leading to the erection of further hideous hoardings in other arresting situations. Besides their natural beauty, the surroundings of Parapet Rock contain a great deal of interest scientifically and historically. to botanists, geologists, and geographers. and moreover they provide the setting for agricultural investigations that are potentially of great economic importance to the community. Visiting sci ntists are taken to Castle Hill Basin, and they may judge New Zealanders to be unappreciative of their national assets. —Yours, etc.. MAXWELL GAGE. December 17, 1956.

Sir, —The plea from Sir Edmund Hillary for the preservation of natural beauty was exactly what one could expect from a climber of mountains. Francois Muriac wrote: “Above a certain height it is impossible to nourish evil thoughts. Those are thoughts which cannot flourish except in the low levels. On the peaks a coarse creature becomes less coarse, and a noble being may sometimes meet God. . . .” Our mountain splendours and their precincts should surely be sanctuaries not only for birds but protected by law from crude intrusion of mundane ugliness—places where the human spirit may gain in reverence for the Creator of all earth’s beauty.—Yours, etc., CANDLE WASTAGE. December 17, 1956.