PETROL AND PUMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 13

PETROL AND PUMPS.

A PROBLEM IN SYDNEY. COUNCILS' DIVIDED ATTITUDE. A FLOOD OF APPLICATIONS. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. April 29. | The petrol pumps which border at short distances many of the main arteries of traffic in the metropolitan area of Sydney, and which are finding their way in increasing numbers in the country towns, certainly do not appeal to the eye. They express, of course, simply tho purpose for which they have been erected. They are pumps, and pumps are never at any time an ornament. Their ugliness, however, threatens to bo accentuated by regular forests of them at every point of 'vantage, unless the councils take a firm stand, for petrol firms are said to bo now offering to instal these pumps for retail dealers at prices so low as to become practically only a nominal charge. The result, of course, has been a flood of applications to instal the pumps. The councils, judging from their general attitude, appear to be sensible of the fact that the unlimited granting of rights to erect these pumps will be simply to disfigure the landscape with these structures. Some councils, looking at the position, not from the aesthetic, but from the patriotic standpoint, are refusing permission to instal pumps which are not made in Australia. One leading council has taken the stand that the right of installing th(j pumps should be limited strictly to garages. Other councils are inclined not to,. grant permits for pumps which are installed under the condition that only a particular brand of petrol will be supplied through them. Other councils, again, are urging the authorities to insist upon the" American method, if more of these pumps are necessary to meet the increasing demands of motorists. In America, it is explained, instead of the streets being disfigured with these structures, they are placed back from the street in an ornamental enclosure which the motorist can drive through without obstructing the traffic. As lack of space would prevent; the expression of tins ideal in and about the crowded city, and as motorists must have their pumps, the hope is expressed that some genius will arise and clothe these structures, in their outline and details, with something of architectural beauty and give to them an ennobling effect that will help to dissipate not a little of the existing opposition to them.