MENACE OF HOARDINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19383, 19 July 1926, Page 10

MENACE OF HOARDINGS.

"AN INSIDIOUS GROWTH." POWERS' OF LOCAL BODIES. MR. HURST SEAGER'S VIEWS. In an interview in. which he made interesting suggestions for the co-ordination of town-planning efforts, Mr. S. Hurst Seager, president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, did not mince words in his condemnation of hoardings. Not on aesthetic or architectural grounds alone did the town-planning expert, who has been interested in the question of hoardings for 20 years, base his criticism. "It amounts to this," he said. " Hoardings do not pay the advertiser. The only notice the passer-by takes of a hoarding, especially if ho sees it day after day, is of a hostile character. In ihe end it is the consumer who pays the cost, anyway. And he is in the anomalous position of paying f° r the disfigurement of his own countryside." Instances that had come under his notice were quoted by Mr. Hurst Seager to illustrate his contention that persons and firms who consented to have their wares advertised at the expense of the public's sense of the aesthetic did so through thoughtlessness. He mentioned the case of a firm in Christchurch which had erected a hoarding that stared through a fair vista of trees. When Mr. Hurst Seager had shown them a photograph of the scene as it looked with the hoarding, and one with the hoarding erased, they agreed immediately that it was an eyesore, and had the hoarding removed. "Placards That Screech." "There is certainly a strong feeling against these disfiguring sights," continued Mi". Hurst Seager, "and I am afraid the antipathy spreads sometimes, certainly among those who are saddened at the sight of a beautiful scene Chat has been made hideous with blatant placards, to those who have been led to believe that this is good advertising." lie likened the hoarding to another form of advertising, favoured by London merchants a hundred years ago, the metho' l of which was to employ a boy to stand outside the door of the shop and assail passers-by with the strident call, "What d'ye lack ?". "It was so annoying to the public that it was put down by Act of Parliament," said Mr. Hurst Seager. "But now, we have placards that screech just as offensively., with the difference that nauseating cult now has the approval of the Government, which sets the example. I may add that I am entirely with the'- Henaxd in its condemnation of this insidious growth. Improving Vacant Plots.

An argument frequently nsed by those favourable to hoardings, that they improve unsightly sections, was quickly dismissed by .Mr. .Hurst. Scager. "The solution of the unsightly sections is not the erection of a' hoarding, which, however ornate, is likewise unsightly," he replied. "Sections left bare over a certain length ,of time should, until building operations start, be beautified with a grass plot, and be equipped with seats for passers-by. The sections would then be of some use, and an asset instead of a dead loss, both to the owner and to the community." Discussing some of the efforts made in different parts of the world to abolish the menace, Mr. Hurst Seager said it was New Zealand that had shown the way, although strangely, enough it had not itself been able as yet to benefit from the instrument that it had introduced. He recalled that many years ago. a .clause which he had drafted was incorporated in the Municipal Corporations Amendment Act empowering local bodies to have full control of the hoardings in. their area, but the omission of provision for making the effect of tiie clause retrospective had resulted in its annulments However, he believed there was now an amended clause which would give the local bodies very effective power. Position in England. "A similar, clause was afterwards passed in the House of Commons to deal with the menace in England, where it has reached serious proportions," Mr. Hurst Seager added. "The town-planning organisations there were well pleased with the lead New. Zealand had given. "In the United States the fight is very difficult, for there are strong vested interests which obstruct all efforts to make such a regulation general. It is distressing to notice on the road to Philadelphia a long; beautiful avenue which is so blotched with hoardings that the stately trees might as well not be there at all."