ART AND COUNTRY

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3354, 29 September 1931, Page 3

ART AND COUNTRY

The following memorial was sent to the British Prime Minister recently by the Royal Academy, on the subject of the disfigurement of the countryside and with special reference to the Town and Country Planning Bill: "In view of the great debt which many artists, past and present, owe to the beauty of the English countryside/ thp .Royal Academy welcomes the inS&duction of the Town and Country Planning Bill now before Parliament, since, one of the principal objects appears to be to extend

well-considered planning of the whole

country, so that our matchless countryside may be saved from further spoliation. Te Royal Academy ventures to suggest that this object is more likely to be attained if the administration of the Bill is provided with increased facilities' for reference to competent and qualified artistic advice. "The Royal Academy has hitherto refrained from making any pronouncement on this important matter, through its disinclination to intervene in what might seem to be political issues or matters which did not directly concern it; but the destruction now proceeding at such an alarming pace of much of the charm and beauty of our country compels the Academy to make an urgent protest, and to express the earnest hope that effective steps will be taken to check the progress of this evil. "The country, for some years past, has been subjected to a wave of ruthless materialism and destructive commercialism. In m&ny parts the face of England has been ignobly and irrevocably transformed. Ugly, mechancial uniformity is rapidly displacing the varied and natural beauties of our land. Roads are planned with no regard to beauty, and in their making many harmless curves are straightened out, trees are felled and hedges removed. "Hoardings, advertisements, and unworthy buildings, often built of material foreign to the soil and climate, deface their frontages. Country lanes and ancient streets are widened and disfigured with asphalt paths, concrete kerbs, and petrol-filling stations. Craftsmanship has been superseded by mass production. Much of the countryside is rapidly becoming urbanised in a crude and unregulated manner, despite the instruction issued by the Minister of Transport urging the desirability of safeguarding the amenities. Fortunately, however, the character of our land has not yet been lost or damaged beyond

repair, and there is still time to save its essential beauty and distinction if immediate and well-considered action is taken. "The Royal Academy is convinced that these disfigurements and others with which the integrity of the countryside is threatened are quite unnecssary evils, and are not to be regarded as inseparable from modern progress. There is a great need for public enlightenment and for a sensitive appreciation of scenery, and also for a use of modern scientific knowledge and machinery which will create new beauty and conserve as much as-possible of the old. And here the responsibility rests with local authorities and Government Departments; for it is largely in their power to protect the countryside or to leave it to vandalism The Royal Academy would press for better control of these matters, and requests that men of artistic vision and experience be consulted, on the lines of the advisory work of the Royal Fine Art' Commission and the preservation v work of H.M. Office of Works. "The Royal Academy considers that In view of all the circumstances it Should be compulsory for all authorities to take competent advice in this t matter "The Royal Academy believes that skilled guidance and advice are the only cure for the crudities and deformities of modern commercialism. It aslcs the Government, therefore, to

take the necessary steps to ensure that local authorities will avail themselves of the opportunities to be afforded by the Town and Country Planning Bill for obtaining advice from the voluntary panels set up by the Council for the preservation of Rural England and the Royal Institute of British Architect"?.

"On behalf of the members of the Royal Academy of Arts."—William Llewellyn. President.