URBAN BEAUTY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 15 June 1914, Page 4

URBAN BEAUTY.

The Beautifying Societies which, to the credit of their promoters and those who help them, are applying . themselves to the cause of urban beauty in the cities and towns cf the Dominion, may derive many hints and much encqurag^nient jjiioni the work of similar bodies in other-** countries;.':; .Tn the United States, for instance, the Legislature has invested many towns and cities with power to prevent the destruction of beautiful natural objects, 'not only within the municipal boundaries but beyond them. In Madison (Wisconsin), the' city controls . the planting, maintenance, trimming, and removal of trees through a board, which •is called the Board of Shade-tree Commissioners, and the board consists of the Mayor, the city engineer, two citizensj and the president of a local park and pleasure drive/ association. This board has wide powers, for it not only acts as the guardian of trees and shrubberies, which cannot be destroyed or removed without the Board's leave, but it has in addition power to plant shade trees along any street, and may charge the cost of purchasing and planting the trees upon the owner of the land which is benefited by the improvement. In some parts of Europe even more than this is done in the interest of urban beauty, and in Prussia and some other, countries, within the radius of districts remarkable for their natural beauty, official permission must be obtained to do anything, even to build structures which might disfigure the place or interfere with its distinctive character. In American and some German cities, the bodiss which we call beautifying societies are named committees of taste, and in Berlin this committee consists of members representing (1) Academies of art and architecture; (2) architectural associations in Berlin; (3) the city architect; and (4) two members of the city council specially versed in questions of amenity. . In the main the work of these committees consists in preventing the destruction of natural scenery, in creating new beauty by planting and other means, and in preventing the disfigurement of beautiful sites or localities by. the erection of unsuitable buildings-, it is a question whether it would not he well to invest New Zealand beautifying societies witli similar statutory powers. Little if anything is ever heard of these powers being abused in America or Europe, while no observant traveller visits those parts of the world without being' impressed with the refining results of their intelligent exercise. Would''there be a likelihood of its being otherwise in New Zealand?