The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1930. NOBODY SATISFIED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19154, 21 August 1930, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1930. NOBODY SATISFIED.

Gloucester Street and Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND.

A. NEW TURN has been given to the discussion of art gallery sites by the petition of several artists and art lovers asking that the riverbank site in the hospital gardens should be abandoned. The arguments for the abandonment of this site are unanswerable. Unfortunately the petitioners are so far out of touch with public opinion as to persist in advocating the raiding of the Rolleston Avenue frontage of the gardens for the gallery. This is an unthinkable proposal. To quote Sydney as a case in which public gardens were chosen as the site for an art gallery is misleading. The Sydney art gallery, which, by the way, is about ten or twelve times the size of the proposed Christchurch gallery, docs not stand in gardens as we know them in Christchurch. It faces a somewhat unkempt piece of grass land surrounded by trees, and well-paved roads lead up the gallery entrance, as they ought to do in Christchurch. To put an art gallery in any part of the Christchurch Domain would destroy much of the quietness of the gardens, and would pave the way to further raids, perhaps of a more objectionable nature. THREE BY-ELECTIONS. ' I 'HE RARE occurrence of three by-elections in the term of one City Council will help the citizens to understand the value of proportional representation. If the process of electing a council piecemeal were continued to the sixteenth seat we would undoubtedly have sixteen nominees of the strongest jjarty in local politics, and all other parties would be shut out of representation. It so happened that the first by-election, almost providentially, gave the citizens an opportunity of extricating the Council from the stalemate occasioned by the return of a Labour Mayor and a bare majority of non-Labour councillors, and although it is desirable at all times to give the citizens the opportunity of filling vacancies at a by-election the logic of the position should not be lost upon the citizens. HE WHO HESITATES LOSES. 66 'OEOCRASTINATION, that’s the fault of the nation,” ran a post-war ragtime, and it expressed sentiments that are singularly applicable to Christchurch. The continued postponement of an amicable settlement regarding the art gallery site is fairly typical of the spirit of lethargy that handicaps the progress of the city. Here we have the means, but not the mind, to know what to do with such a generous gift. With this indecision, so evident in local affairs, it is not surprising that we should find it difficult to persuade others of the urgency of our needs. We were served last in the matter of automatic telephones, and the electrification of the Lyttelton tunnel was long overdue. Yet we are pi'obabfy to blame for such inattention from W ellington. One thing, however, is certain. Our own wealthy citizens with generous impulses will have second thoughts after witnessing the city’s treatment of Mr McDougall’s gift. empire trade. RESOLUTION on interA Imperial trade, passed at a meeting of bankers in London last month, is all the more noteworthy because it comes from a quarter that lias adhered, traditionally, to a policy of free imports. Following on conclusions similar in spirit and effect, reached by Chambers of Commerce, by the Federation of British Industries, and by the Ecojjomic Committee of the Trades Union Congress, the stage is undoubtedly set for a very definite forward move in Empire trade at the coming Imperial Conference. * ° New Zealand, which has always accorded a very considerable degree of preference to British goods, the adoption by Britain of a policy “ to impose duties on all imports from all other countries ” than those in the Empire, would give general satisfaction. All that is asked is that liscal preference should bo given to Empire food and Empire raw materials when and so far as this preference proves essential to specific Empire agreements. While this does not go as far ns our own unqualified preference lo British goods, Us adoption would be a slop in the right direction.