HOARDINGS ON HUTT ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 8

HOARDINGS ON HUTT ROAD

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —In certain American States, they have discovered a method of reducing the number of disfiguring hoardings on highways. Groups of representative citizens communicate with the advertisers concerned and simply say that if their hoarding is to remain up, they (the citizens) will not buy their products. In many cases, this has the result desired, and action along similar lines might well be taken in Wellington, if an organisation like the Beautifying Society were to give a lead.

When speaking of unwanted advertisements, it is customary to refer facetiously to Blogg's Pills and Ointment,, Simkin's Soap, or some other imaginary product. ,It is interesting to note, therefore, that no pills, soap or ointment is advertised on the Hutt Road. Between the Thorndon Tram Sheds and the Petone Railway Crossing, there are approximately 145 signs or posters, varying from the standard 20 x 10 poster to the "snipe" variety, with painted fences and other signs in between. Of these 145 posters, no fewer than 116 are purely advertisements. The balance is made up of Road Reports, "Trespassers will be Prosecuted," Wellington and Petone Boundaries, Makara County Boundary, and other miscellaneous and quite unnecessary, (most of them) eyesores. There are three or four quaint notices prohibiting "push cycles from using the bitumen," thereby conferring upon the übiquitous bicycle a unique distinction, because how a "push" eyefe, or any other kind of cycle can "use" the bitumen without being in charge of someone is not quite clear. Then thqre are at least six notices relating to Horse Drawn TVaffic on' the Hutt Road. These also could well be dispensed with, as the-volume of horse drawn traffic on the Hutt Road is now almost negligible.

Almost every variety of product is advertised on Hutt Road hoardings, from pest exterminators and waterproofing compounds to boot polish and ginger beer. There are four brands of whisky, six motor spirits, six motor cars, three motor tyres, three refrigerators, two cigarettes, one tobacco, one hotel, two brands of paint, two brands of effervescent saline, a breakfast food, beer, batteries, films, boots and shoes, racjios, chocolates, washing blue and starch. There is one wrecked hoarding, and two uprights which obviously belonged to another.

A thorough clean-up is badly needed, and now is the time to do it, before the Centennial Celebrations commence. Any movement to get rid of the hoardings and other disfiguring signs on the Hutt Road should receive the wholehearted support of every citizen with a vestige of civic pride.—l am, etc.,

OBSERVER.