BEAUTIES OF AUCKLAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLL, Issue 13305, 14 February 1914, Page 6

BEAUTIES OF AUCKLAND.

"WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN."

"It would ill become me to sing the praises of Auckland, my native town," said Dr. A. Challinor Purc'ha.s, president of the Australasian Medical Congress, m his inaugural address to the delegates at the Town Hali, "because it would be akin to 'gilding the lily.* But, when you have been guided round Auckland and its suburbs, you will no doubt be pleased by what meets the eye, because Nature has been very generous with her gifts, and has left a splendid heritage for the inhabitants of this city." Continuing, Dr. Purchas deplored the want of good planning and architecture which, he said, had been shown m the past. Anyone referring to an old picture of Auckland, before much building had taken place, must be struck by the grand possibilities that presented themselves to^ the artistic mind. How that opportunity was lost could only be imagined by looking upon many of the present public buildings and the waterfront, and comparing them with what mieht have been. "It seems to be a mania with the 'powers that be' to fill wp all the bays by cutting down the headlands, by making one straight line, the front of which culminates m a rugged "concrete sewer," said the doctor. "Those picturesque bays, which were the .charm of Auckland harbor m its early days, are now nearly all straightened up, and guarded by a forbidding, unsightly barricade. "How very much better, from a utilitarian standpoint, it would have been to retain, say, Hobson bay, dredge it, and so make a picturesque haven for small craft, including; our pleasure fleet, which at present has no place of safety. Then the eye would be pleased and rested by Nature's unspoiled curves, so beautifully pointed out by Ruskin, and Auckland might have been unrivalled m her picturesqueness, as a charming jewel nestling m a magnificent set-