The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. Gloucester Street end Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1934. WILL SILVER COME BACK?

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20276, 10 April 1934, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. Gloucester Street end Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1934. WILL SILVER COME BACK?

A T BOTTOM, the plan to re- *■ monetise silver in the United States through the nationalisation of all domestic stocks of the metal, that is, through the commandeering of silver by the Government in exchange for silver certificates, is intended to give the Government a sizeable profit on the metal. But this move and the proposed purchase on the world market of silver up to 50 million ounces a month may have a world-wide influence in restoring silver to a more honoured place, and automatically making it a medium for the repayment of war debts. It is more than a straw in the wind that “ The Times ” on February 20 should have published a 24-page “ silver number,” in an editorial preface to which it is pointed out that both as a monetary medium and particularly in the arts, silver has played a part no whit less important than its gaudier fellow, even if it'has failed to capture the imagination to the same extent. Gold may, indeed, be more precious, and in the arts it has a splendour all its own, appropriate in certain settings, and yet how vulgar in others, and how tedious, except in carefully restricted quantities. Even in the monetary sphere gold is something of a parvenu. The fable of Midas has an aesthetic as well as a moral, application, which the Greeks may not have divined. Jupiter did, indeed, visit Danae in a shower of gold, for gold, like the sun, we all know to be a wanton; but silver, like Diana, the moon goddess, whom it, symbolises, is always chaste, and for that reason, perhaps, just a little dull. This very dullness it is, which, with its übiquitous utility, as “ the pale and common drudge ’tween man and man,” has given it such a prosaic significance Indeed, in one modern language, the French, silver and money are simply identified and money, though as Gelden has said, it makes a man laugh, is* hardly a romantic thing except to that strange perversion of human nature, the miser. It is impossible to say what the future has in store for the currencies of the world. Silver is, at least, more than holding its own for the coinage with which one buys one’s daily bread, and the days of gold coinage are said to be numbered. There is more than a possibility, therefore, that a new phase of the silver question is coming into view, and the subject is one in which the layman should take a lively interest. WALKING DANGEROUSLY. T ONDON is not too dignified to move towards the institution of special crossings for pedestrians throughout the country and the imposition of penalties on pedestrians who walk dangerously, and this is one of the directions in which small communities like Christchurch may begin to fulfill the cultural ideals that Mr Shaw has placed before us. It would be a simple and rational thing in Christchurch to provide that no pedestrian should venture within the four corners of the quadrangle of the intersection of two streets, and this preliminary safeguard against the “ jay walker ” should be followed up by a rigid provision of more safety zones and prescribed crossing places. THE CITY’S BUILDINGS. TN DISCUSSING the example of Christchurch architecture which he found worthy of his praise, Mr Shaw advised New Zealanders to encourage gifted architects by building more churches even if they had to “ get religion.” But one cannot swing the pendulum back to the days when Wren’s churches rose up to give beauty and character to Old London. Moreover, the churches that dominate the mediaeval towns of England were built when the tide of wealtli that now flows into the houses of industry and commerce was in the hands of the Church. The Church’s great financial resources made it the guardian of culture, and until commerce sees that the transference of power has also brought about a transference of responsibility in this respect we cannot expect an architectural renascence of any great value.