CERTAIN POSTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 788, 11 April 1910, Page 8

CERTAIN POSTS.

THEIR ANCESTRY. ''■■'■■■ ■-'■■'■ ' ■'"' r '■'"'' ' ' >, <• 'i;:S\ .;:.':■. .(By.J.Q.X.) • I am- not alluding to the. letter, parcel; hook, or sample post; nor to Any ''Morning," "Evening," "Daily," or "Weekly. Post,", nor. to posts in the Civil Service; : nor J ' yet^—though .these are less, .remote from my intention— -to-fencing post's, goal posts, sign posts, gate posts, or lamp posts. ,-' •' :. ■ .Delicacy : suggests .this primitive manner of speaking, this mode of definition by,: a series of negations. It is not usual—and, therefore, one suspects, not 'strictly proper—to. speak freely, of the posts thatl have in mind. We exe sometimes encouraged to look forward to a time when they shall be seen no more. Trenches and .conduits hidden -underground are to serve us in their stead. In . meantime, we rarely; allude to . them. I think we are. supposed not to notice -them.' 'And yet their serried ranks are in all.our From Miramar to' Karbri, from ..Thorndon Esplanade, to., Island ..Bay, 'they!, . ;.-.. .' _■.-■;, [■:.-. '■■..'•> -' ■ , .' '■; '. ' "Stand,on end,.'' like quiljs upon the fretful porcupine." ■ : . Toles, they might , ;be called,''but "posts"', is the better word, because they are not ; round, 'like their elegant ■ neighbours,". the cast-iron •" tramwaypoles. They- are nearly square in section. The interesting fact; about them is that they are not quite square.- Each 'of "their four corners has been ' shaved off.. Tho artisan, running his. drawknife .. roughly, and. rapidly-, along , the angles,,may have been unaware that he was engaged upon a highly significant process. Had ; one' inquired, he would have said it was "just to make a: job .of'it."-: The: statement, is,.correct and comprehensive,. out .rather too.. •' condensed..■':',: - ; ; ~ . . , ' It is- a'natural supposition that the original' mandate to out off .the comers was suggested by consideration for: astronomers', inebriates, poets,' admirers of \ architecture; and .'other absent- , minded' citizens who are; liable to ran their, heads against things.,- By. substituting a pWe surface : and two obtuse angles in place of one right-angle", ■the risk of severe contusions for unwary skulls (if might have been argued) will be sensibly diminished. But it .that proposition,be \ accepted (and I could oppugn it) another' difficulty remains. : The. chamfer, or level, extends much , higher and lower than the'range of human stature. : The post is square for a few inches at the bottom, and for two or more'feet-at the top, but up and down the far greater part of it the corners are levelled .off: Can there be-any scientific, any practical, reason for this? Surely not. The difference in weight is'inconsiderable, the effect as to ease of handling is negligible, the .strength, of ~the; post, if-affected at all, is ; slightly>reduced.-■'.■'■.;,■ -. ■ The fact is that the chamfer on the posts 'is.-an o.rnament..-.-- There'"is, ...no other way of 'accounting for'it: -;-/ ... I do not 1 know any .stronger proot of the immanence of the artistic instinct than "this. These-posts are admittedly makeshifts. They, am.. called ugly, at-best,' 'utilitarian. '■ We: never, point them out to tourists,. We hardly acknowledge their 'existence. It is, as I' have hinted, a sort of; impropriety to seem to be aware of them. We> only tolerate,, them ; because we -must 1 . -'And:ye.e? ani amount 'of labour' which in the aggregate is, .considerable ihas been devoted to,, adorning them. . ■. The chamfer, I admit, is-the simplest, as well as the commonest, of. all orna■■ments: The'author of , "Renuniscences -of a Stonemason" derives it from .tne •difficulty of keeping a. projecting angle, &i brittle-material like stone,, from ■chipping and breaking.: I do not know whether its use in wood originated _ independently as ■ a precaution against • denting and: .splintering,;, or . is to be traced- to i™ itations ■'<? ' stol\f- ' work. -The/ inquiry, is .'baffled by the very simplicity ,df the subject. , But'the total result of the tour chamfers on the post .is not so simple.: It is nothing less than.a. rude-variation upon our old and honoured friend the, architectural column. .The short square part nest the ground.is the.base, the ■fong central portion, just a -reduced . by- the , bevelling, is the shaft, .and the square part above is the capital. The whole thing tapers slightly, like a classic pillar. It is true that 'there are no piled and hollowed mouldfirigs,'around the base, no fluted channels on,the shaft, no-wreathed acanthus or • curled volute upon the capital. But these humble and slighted posts in Wel- .'. lington. streets had ancestors, that clustered round the shrines of Athena, the 'halls where a Caesai'decreed the conquest of nations; the/porches wheTe a 2eno taught men' the conquest of themjselves. It is the old story of the fugi■tive substance and the immortal form, iind the instance is all the more impressive for the very reason- that nobody cares ■ much about it.- It is as though the idea of the column reproduced; itself by the impulse of its own vitality, like the flower that is born to blush.unseen., But.the base, shaft, and capital are not the whole of our post. Its top also las been shaped." Instead of being sawn off at right angles, it has been finished .with a central'ridge and two. slopes. : Our smallest bouses and- commonest tents are similarly-roofed, , but so also was the ' Parthenon. Moreover, the square upper part'of. the post is-over long-for a capital, though, hitherto, I have called it such. truth, it is entablature; as well as capital; and the roof-like finish represents a classic pediment; or gable.;. In' a Grec'ian temple, : one pediment surmounted a long row of . columns; here, on the contrary, each post has its own, but the classic idea has been followed as closely as the necessities of the case permitted. The , very'spars, or battens,. that carry the] electric wires, for the support of which the-post exists; the great design as -architrave, frieze and, cornice. ■:'-' : -On the ; . summit of a Greek facade, right over the apex of the pediment, it was customary to place a sculptured ornament. Tho original of this was to be seen in those primitive gables, which were formed by tying two poles together and leaving the branching ends nncut. Ever since the apparently artJess barbarian built his hut in that fashion, (all roof, with no perpendicular walls), overy pediment or gable has seemed: to require some kind of super- ; posed ornament. Domesticity has placed its chimneys there, religion its crosses, patriotism its flagstaffs, and now at last electricity its ' insulators. .On some of : these, posts,of ours, one wire is carried above all the rest, arid on the ridged summit stands the familiar little white inverted cup. '

How much in all these details is due to technical reasons. is a question that may stand over. • The more insistent the practical needs, the more impressive ja the greatness of that ancient art-con-ception which provides for them all. These unregarded posts, I think, would cry, like Wisdom, in the streets, ■©ley would tell us that art, however, starved and thwarted, 'is deathless, that tho love of beauty, however slighted and disowned, is universal, that thoughts are mightier than thingSj and that men have soulsi