Responsibility for posters disclaimed

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 14

Responsibility for posters disclaimed

Thte organisers of the Anti-Vietnam War march through the city last Friday have disclaimed responsibility for the stickers posted up throughout the city publicising the march.

The secretary of the Christchurch Anti-War Mobilisation Committee (Mr D. Marks) said last evening the committee had declined a council request to take down the posters because it had not put up the posters or organised their distribution. “It is true that three, or four posters were produced by the committee, but we did not organise their display.” Most of the posters had come from Wellington- and Auckland, and there were no means of controlling their placing. It had been up to the public to do what they liked with them as they had come from a source independent Of the committee. “In any case I don’t see the necessity for removing them. A lot of them have come down of their own accord or been torn down, and the rest will probably come down in the rain,” Mr Marks said. The chairman of the council’s by-laws committee (Cr H. P. Smith) said no-one had requested the council’s permission before the posters were put up. The larger posters were put on power poles, rubbish bins and buildings with paste and smaller ones were seif sticking.

Cr Smith said a condition of granting approval to put up signs was that- they be taken down straight after the event they advertised was over. I fthey were to be put on buildings, the owners' permission had to be obtained.

If the organisers of the march, or anyone else, asked

for permission to put ths posters up it would probably nave been given, subject to these conditions, Cr Smith said. The Town Clerk (Mr M. B. Hayes) said he felt that the unauthorised, indiscriminate placing of posters in the city tended to degrade its appearance, and the council was troubled with these from time to time. Aerosol paint cans had been used to paint slogans on road signs quite a number of times, the most recent being last Friday.