Civic Beauty.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18370, 1 May 1925, Page 8

Civic Beauty.

Tho people of Auckland, as our readers will have noticed, have rejected the proposal to float a loan of some hundreds of thousands of pounds for creating an artistic Civic Centre. 1 Whether they have done so for good or bad reasons it is not possible to say, but wo made it plain when we referred to this matter before that one of the obstacles in the way of the promoters was the fact that the Council had very unwisely, and indeed quite improperly, accepted plans and begun the work of clearing the aite for new buildings i before the ratepayers had been asked

to approve of the necessary loan. As there were 4487 votes for the scheme and only 5276 against it, it is reasonable to suppose that the loan would have been carried if the public had not been antagonised in advance by such extraordinary official high-handed-ness. In any case the proposal was, and still is, of Dominion interest, and in Christehurch especially there will be many who will appreciate the fact that the Auckland Society of Arts and the local branch of the Institute of Architects issued an excellently expressed joint appeal to citizens on behalf of the Council's scheme. This is just the sort of practical interest in a question of public art that one should expect from architects and artists banded together for the.furtherance of their arts, but it is not the sort of thing to which the New Zealand public is accustomed. Art Societies and the Institute of Architects have not been active enough in coming forward to lead and instruct the public where art touches puhlic affairs and where civic dignity is involved. To the averago man, when he thinks about it at all, a Society of Arts is merely a Society for the hold' ing of exhibitions of pictures, and the Institute of Architects is a body organised to look after the interests of architects. Their proper functions are really much wider, and we welcome this Auckland intervention as a Bign that these bodies arc realising their responsibilities more fully. There have been other signs. Thero is an encouraging increase of interest in architecture, for which architects themselves are largely responsible. Some of the best' men in the profession see that if the public is to appreciate good architecture, the experts must go to the people and instruct them. It is also a sign of the times that the Auckland Society of Arts has protested against the proposal to, establish a nitrate factory at Milford Sound. This is the kind of vandalism for which such Societies should be on the watch. If there were a really influential Society in every centre it might, in conjunction with the Institute of Architects, prevent much injury to beauty spots and many blunders in town-planning. In Christehurch we should particularly welcome its aid in the battle against hideous hoardings.