DUNEDIN AS A CITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23882, 9 August 1939, Page 8

DUNEDIN AS A CITY

In the matter of its architecture, its buildings, and its amenities a modern city may be said to reflect to a considerable extent the outlook of the people who live in it. We hear a good deal about what is called " civic pride," which possibly signifies, it may be suggested, on a collective scale, the attitude of the individual citizen to whom the outward aspect of his dwelling and garden is a matter of solicitude. The collective results are not always, however, as conspicuous as they might be. There has never been any suggestion, so far as we know, that the people of Dunedin, as com-

pared with those of other communities, have lacked civic pride. It must then be pertinent to ask how it can come about that a visitor to this city should be moved to make the observations published in our columns yesterday, and to finish with the question: "Why does not Dunedin wake up? " This question might be dismissed with the retort that Dunedin is quite wide awake, and, since that is the burden of impeachment, holds its own in structural appearance. But if the question be allowed to be a fair one, and that is likely to be the opinion of a good many people who look about them, then the grounds of criticism upon which it is based must call for some attention. In the aesthetic aspect the development of Dunedin as a ci(y has not been altogether felicitous, though it is an educational as well as a manufacturing centre. That matter would open up, however, a field too large to enter upon at the moment. More particular grounds of criticism which merely touch upon it relate to its fulfilment of the conception of what is generally understood as a well-built city. While the perception is apt to be dulled by what is familiar it cannot be gainsaid that there are vistas of our principal streets which must tend to make the judicious grieve. The gradual improvement that might be expected in the course of time does not seem invariably to come. Blocks of buildings that date back maybe half a century, or a good deal longer, are most tenacious of life. While that may be a tribute to the builders of a former day, it must appear, unless to the sentimentalist, a matter for doubtful satisfaction that their perpetuation should seem to be almost a point of honour. Such an observation does not apply peculiarly to Dunedin. But so far as a comparison is instituted between this and other centres a pertinent point will concern the degree in which the balance is redressed by evidence of a forward architectural movement. To an important extent, of course, a city will reflect in its buildings its wealth and enterprise, and exhibit " go-ahead " symptoms. In one Dominion centre at least, conspicuous for the many fine buildings which have been added to it within recent years, there has possibly been an expenditure which could only be justified in existing circumstances by a very large optimism. But what seem to be points of criticism worth serious consideration as regards Dunedin relate to the degree to which, so far as building activity is shown, it is directed to the patching up and outward renovation of old buildings. Not in that way will the architecture of the city on its lower plane ever be improved. That can only happen when old and poor buildings, which occupy conspicuous and valuable sites, give place to something better. How that can be brought about may be a somewhat difficult question. But that it must often be a pennywise and pound foolish policy to spend money on old buildings, rather than to replace them by modern structures, may be reasonably surmised. The city authorities might usefully give closer consideration to their position so far as they exercise control over structural activities in the main streets. A reputation for solidity is an excellent thing, but a city cannot afford to be neglectful of the face which it presents to the world.