EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 9, 1 July 1911, Page 713

EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Progress of Auckland. It is of course possible to say that the progress of Auckland is the progress of the Dominion. But the fact that the northern city has outstripped the rest of the Dominion in progress cannot be gainsaid. We are- glad to see from an article reprinted in our building section, that the progress includes the beautification of the city by the erection of fine buildings. It makes one open one’s eyes to read that the. sum of £490,000 is being spent on a few named buildings. It also is surprising to read so modest an estimate as the writer’s, which contents itself with putting down the extras n for so many buildings over such a large aggregate at £IO,OOO, or about two per cent. He is evidently thinking of the millennium and praying for its .advent. He has reason, because the building programme for the next decade which follows in the article will call for some very large contracts. We trust the building stones of the country will not be neglected by the men responsible for this programme. We trust also that the possibilities of concrete now so vastly greater than they were but a few years ago will tempt the architects of taste, who abound in the northern city,and, indeed, are not rare in the Dominion ■— spite of the rash and altogether wrong headed criticism of Lord Blanket, our late Governor, to the contraryto consider the beauty of the streets for which they are designing edifices. We trust also that the Municipal authorities will, while enforcing the sanitary rules, now getting to be so well understood, not forget the claims of beauty. . It is time now to think of the uniformity of street lines, of the

planting of streets with handsome timbers, and the dignified ornamentation of the street fronts of all buildings. Some interesting remarks on this subject in the letter of our Christchurch correspondent (“Arts and Crafts’’) show what the practice once was in this respect and what it is now. This is only another way of saying that the jerry-builder is not to be encouraged in any possible way. It must be evident that if the architects were encouraged by the men who build, to insist on drawings and models of all ornamental work requiring artistic skill and distinction, they would be better able to secure the essentials of building stability also. Consider for one moment the medley of hideous piping projecting aggressively from the roofs of a city in our day and you will weep or be moved to hilarious laughter according to your temperament. Let house owners read the small sketch they will find in our building section, “What the Chimney said to the Vent Pipe,” and they will realise in a moment what a responsibility is theirs. They should understand is high time — that there is no need to stamp the brand of ugliness hard down on everything that is necessary or useful. The prosperity of the Dominion as typified in the building figures supplied from Auckland is going to give grand opportunities for “the city beautiful” of the future. Let the matter only be taken in time.