ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33455, 9 February 1974, Page 7

ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Old Buildings of the Lakes District. By Marion Borrell and Audrey Bascand. Printed by the Otago Daily Times. 52 pp. Wairarapa Through a Visitor’s Lens. By Charles Fearnley. John Mclndoe. 103 pp. Hie two volumes under review here are further evidence of a growing and most welcome interest in our slender but valuable architectural heritage. Both books present illustrations accompanied by an explanatory text, though in the case of the Lakes District the illustrations take the form of line drawings, while the Wairarapa is dealt with photographically. This difference in approach makes the two difficult to compare, but it would not be unfair to remark that “Old Buildings of the Lakes District’’ is, in a wholly delightful way, the more strictly amateur of the two. Charles Fearnley is, after all, a Wellington architect. Marion Borrell (whose speciality is Victorian literature) and Audrey Bascand (who teaches art) bring only enthusiasm and, in the case of Miss Borrell, family ties, to their task. Centred on Arrowtown, with its relative profusion of old buildings wellpreserved, their warmly enthusiastic survey of local architecture should win wide support for the plans of the Lakes County Council and Queenstown and Arrowtown Borough Councils to preserve local buildings and prevent, in the case of Arrowtown, the building of intrusively modern Two northern lads Eric and Ernie. By Morecambe and Wise, and Dennis Holman. W. H. Allen. 214 pp. In writing their autobiography two of England’s best-known comedians have chosen what they call a referee to keep their story within the conventional bounds of their medium. Dennis Holman fulfils this role admirably, breaking up their mock quarrels and keeping their reminiscences within certain prescribed narrative limits. Eric and Ernie are both very frank about themselves, and their personal problems which, however have never included a dangerous pitfall common to their profession — jealousy. Both were products of working-class parents in the North of England — Eric being a Lancashire lad, from whose home-town he has chosen his professional name, and Ernie hailing from East Ardsley, between Wakefield and Leeds. Both at a very early age felt an itch to be professional entertainers, but it was Mrs Bartholomew, Eric’s mother, who cemented their future partnership after the two boys — Eric, aged 14, and Ernie, a few months younger — teamed up following an audition with Jack Hylton in 1939 which launched them on the stage as a joint act in the touring version of “Youth Takes a Bow.” Thirty years later, after suffering most of the vicissitudes of show biz. they had reached the top bracket of English entertainers, and still retain that proud position. In the course of their joint narrative the characters of the two men emerge, and explain an integral ingredient of their success. This is the genuinely fraternal affection existing between them, unmarred by a jockeying for personal aggrandisement, which justifies the foresight of Eric’s mother who had welded together the community of interest of two boys with no advantages of wealth or influence in the only profession in which both had the impassioned will to succeed. The gags of music hall tradition on which they built up their act are apt to look rather pointless in the cold light of print, and it must be accounted an attribute to artists who can manage to put over such stuff that a succession of pithy and often inconsequent scraps of dialogue make the undoubted impact upon audiences that they obviously do. Fortified by happy marriages (with wives who ’ are both remarkably pretty) Morecambe and Wise are able to concentrate seriously on the exacting work of being continuously funny, though Eric’s sudden coronary late in 1968 threatened the future of both men for many agonising months. How much of the smooth continuity of their revelations is due to the editing of their “referee” it is impossible for the reader to gauge, but Eric Morecambe’s word portrait of what constitutes success on page 175 is a tour de force of vivid phraseology. The book is liberally illustrated with photographs, and reveals the successive stages of achievement in their profession of two very likeable personalities.

shops and houses in the borough centre. Mr Fearniey has no such conservation scheme to focus upon. His visits to the Wairarapa are solely the product of professional interest and enthusiasm, combined with a fear that many of the buildings he photographs will vanish before too long. On page 95, for instance, he includes illustrations of two handsome though unpretentious farmhouses, both clearly destined to rot away through neglect. Other examples occur elsewhere in the book. On the credit side, it should be noted that many of the buildings are maintained in a fine state of repair, showing clear signs of their owners’ pride in possessing such striking properties. Mr Feamley’s photographs are always clear and informative, if not particularly striking. His text has similar virtues, and brings with it the greater depth of architectural understanding to be expected from one professionally trained in the subject. Only in one case did Mr Fearniey leave the reviewer with a sense of puzzlement at a judgement or description. Quit: how the Tui Brewery in Pahiatua (p. 92) is an industrial building in tune with the surrounding countryside is not explained. To the reader it is likely to seem, from the photograph at least, a starkly ugly brick faced tower: no more, no less. “Old Buildings of the Lakes District’’ and “Wairarapa through a Visitor’s Lens” set out to draw the reader’s attention to the architectural wealth of the two areas. This they succeed in doing admirably. Visitors to those parts will find them useful (particularly in the case of Arrowtown, for which a location map is provided), and enthusiasts for New Zealand’s heritage will derive much pleasure from these records of our indigenous architecture. Real detection Intensive Inquiries. By Allen Andrews. Harrap. 256 pp„ with illustrations and index. This book gives an account of seven recent murder investigations in England and Scotland. The Chief Constable of each area writes an introduction to the case and the details and methods of investigation are fully laid out for the reader in concise, forceful, and interesting ways. The reader becomes familiar with the details of routine investigation, the nature of the questions asked, and the painstaking thoroughness of it all. Under scrutiny what appeared to be a run of the mill car accident resulting in the death of the woman driver showed some strange facts, and further investigation of them revealed a thoroughly nasty murder plot and two men and a woman were imprisoned for life. This was near Reading in 1967. The Police Department of Edinburgh were given a woman’s leg, and that was all. In finding out what it was all about, the police investigated the whereabouts of 688 missing women and found 462 of them. Some did not want to be found and their wishes were respected. In this case the police widely used the news media to arouse public interest to give them tne information they needed. Unsuspected reasons why a detecetive chief inspector always attended the port-mortem examination of a mured victim will interest people who appreciate thoroughness and refuse to be taken in by merely what appears to be. This book is splendid value all the way.