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Star (Christchurch), Issue 17352, 17 May 1924, Page 8

The best jest in connection with the selection of Auckland as a site for the Yale telescope was made by a southern writer, who suggested that it would be an excellent thing to have the telescope at Auckland, if only it would enable Aucklanders to discover that there was such a place as the South Island. But, after all, Auckland is not to have its Yale telescope, as the atmospheric conditions are unsuitable. We note that the Mayor of Auckland airily declares that the alternative site is South Africa, but it is obvious that South Africa, lying nearly 180 degrees west of New Zealand, cannot fulfil all the conditions that the Yale authorities were seeking in New Zealand, and an effort should be made lo induce Yale to test the clear southern sites before looking elsewhere. The Otago Institute is talking of establishing a telescope independently of Yale, but it would be wise firstAo find out the exact position taken up by the Yale authorities.

In to-day’s issue appears a photograph of Cathedral Square as it was before the tramway shelter was erected. A comparison with to-day is all in favour of the earlier picture, notwithstanding the fact that in the interval decided improvements have been carried out, such as the removal of old lamp stands, the provision of a stone coping round the Cathedral and the elimination of carriers’ stands. Cathedral Square was disfigured first of all by the tramway shelter, then by the ventilator pipes of the lavatories associated with that structure, and finally by slot telephone boxes of one kind and another—and the safety zone, with its insignificant little lamp brackets. We note that the City Council is to be asked on Monday night to reconsider its refusal to grant a site in the Square for the war memorial column, and the councillor who is leading this forlorn hope has furnished himself, we understand, with a number of pre-tram-shelter photographs of the Square, with which he hopes to make out a good case for his motion. But whether he succeeds or fails in his main object, we hope that he and others will take up the question of beautifying the Square, and will make an effort at least to prepare the ground for the eventual removal or subdivision of the tramway shelter. These old photographs certainly give the city-lover something of a shock in the realisation of how much retrogression there can he in many of the things that help to make a city venerable in the true sense of the word.