CATHEDRAL’S BEAUTY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 111, 10 April 1934, Page 2

CATHEDRAL’S BEAUTY

MR SHAW’S PRAISE. REMARKS AT CHRISTCHURCH. CHRISTCHURCH, April 9. Great praise for the architectural beauty of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch was spoken by Mr G. Bernard Sliaw at the civic reception which was accorded him today. lie urged New Zealanders to build more churches like it. “AAliile looking round Christchurch there are certain things you miss in New Zealand,” said Mr Shaw. “You miss, for instance, a good deal of the architecture you see in Europe. Of course they have had architecture going on there for a great many years, perhaps 1000 years,” The great churches of Europe were the things most worth looking at, he said. The difficulty about New Zealand was that there really were no churches, but when he came to Christchurch he saw a building, and he said to the Mayor: “What is that?” The Mayor said that that was the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Mr Shaw said he would have a look at it. Few of those present, he supposed, had travelled in Europe, but a few of them might have been in Rome and might have seen some of the churches there. They were built about the fifteenth century, at the time when Italian architects and builders had produced many very beautiful buildings; but that was before the Renaissance. Then they discovered tlie classical architecture of Greece, which produced a tremendous impression, and in the first enthusiasm for it they added much charm to their buildings. Churches of great beauty were built, and Mr Shaw spoke of the work of Brunelleschi, who built a beautiful church in which he combined the Gothic with the classic. He did it with such success that when Michael Angelo was asked, “Can you build a church with a better dome than Brunelleschi’s?” he said: “I can build a different dome, but not a better one.” AA lien Mr Shaw saw that Catholic Cathedral he suddenly thought of Brunelleschi, and lie went in and looked at it. He saw that they had already produced a New Zealand Brunelleschi. They had the classical style with all its merits, and nevertheless the arrangements was very original. It was not a mere copy, as he regretted to say the Church of England Cathedral was. There was nothing in that; it was absolutely academic. The other cathedral was originally and beautifully treated.

“But why have T dragged in this?” Mr Shaw asked. “Not because I was bribed by the architect, because I do not know his name, but because ] suddenly saw it without anybody telling me to go in and look a.t it. It is not in the guide books, and it produced that impression on me. Then I began to think they have here in New Zealand a. man who is capable of doing that work. But what an awful time he must be having. Just imagine, suppose yourself born here in New Zealand a. Brunelleschi, and that your business is to produce cathedrals of that kind. New Zealand might make a great effort and give you one commission and one cathedral to build. That is pretty hard lines. That man wants to be building cathedrals all his life. There should be cathedrals like that in every town in New Zealand. It should be an attraction, just as the church or cathedral is a great attraction in 'almost a.ll the towns of Europe, the first tilings you go to see, and therefore I want you to make up your minds to encourage the architects to the extent of having in all your towns and cities a very fine church.” New Zealand should build half a dozen other churches, said Mr Shaw, simply to encourage that gentlema.ll and keep him alive. He supposed this architect was building little villas and was wasting his time. Speaking on the aspect of freedom, Mr Shaw said: “In this country you call yourselves free, and I dare say you have the sensation of being free, on Sundays perhaps.” Dr. H. T. J. Thacker: IVe have to do what we are told on Sundays. Mr Shaw: Yes, but you are not told anything on Sundays. On other days yoii are getting told the whole time, and you have to do what you are told, and the people who tell you what you have to do are not elected or responsible persons. They are your absolute masters. Take the case of the free and independent farmer. I have met men of that description. It was a glorious thing to think that they were on land that belonged t 0 them, and they were working, say, sixteen hours a day to pay the interest on their mortgage. I did not like to tell these poor fellows that they were just slaves of the mortgagee, or perhaps of an absentee.” ARCHITECTS CRITICAL.

Christchurch architects do .not altogether agree with Mr Shaw’s estimate of the architectural beauties of the Catholic Cathedral in Barbadoes Street. ...... , , “It is a very pleasant building, but hardly as good as all that,” was the remark of one man when told or Mi Shaw’s praise. . “I really cannot say 'anything good about it,” remarked another architect, “and I do not think it can be compared to Brunelleschi’s work in Rome. The building was designed by Mr F W. Petrie, of Dunedin, who was also architect of the Pro-Cathedral in Wellington and the Cathedral in Dunedin, as well as the A.M.P. hinJcliiig m Cathedral Square, which one Chnstcliurch architect considered was a much better piece of architecture than th Barbadoes Street Cathedral. The Cathedral is a specimen of ea.ily Italian renaissance architecture, and though its design follows that of several of Brunelleschi’s churches in Rome, it was stated by an architect wh,o had seen and admired these churches that it could not bo compared to them for beauty and liaimony o design.