The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1630, 12 May 1879, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1879.

The question of permission being given for the erection of hoardings for advertising purposes in the city reserves will come before the City Council this evening. As at the Council’s last meeting there was an evident loaning in the direction of turning over a doubtful penny by such an objectionable process, it would bo well if the City Councillors would take the full bearings of the case into their consideration. Firstly, even supposing they have the power —which wo distinctly say they have not—of raising a few odd coppers by lotting posters disfigure the principal sites of the city, w r ould the public in reality got a quid pro quo ? The Council have hitherto allowed Messrs Hobbs and Goodwin to placard, free of charge, several spots which otherwise possess considerable natural advantages. Is the result encouraging ? Take, for instance, the eastern bank of the river near Victoria bridge. The view from <ho Market place across to the old Government Buildings ought to bo one of the prettiest in Christchurch, and yet under existing arrangements the view is more or less appalling. Hideous pictures of acrobats swinging head downwards, of tragedians in the last agony, and of meretriciouslooking damsels, meet the eye instead of the quiet green of the willows and a glimpse of tho river. Would tho small

sum to 1)0 paid by any enterprising advertiser compensate tbo public for such a reversal of tbo laws of good taste. The idea is absurd. Advertisers can always make arrangements with private individuals for tbo use of their walls, and nobody has a right to complain, for the matter lies between the individual and the advertiser, but wo cannot think the public wish tho beet spots in the city to be turned ’ilto a sort of permanent Hichardson’s show. .Of course there are people with peculiar ideas on tho sublime and beautiful. To such the gorgeous colouring, tho red and blue of a blazing sheet may bo warming, piclurcque and satisfactory. But with such people wo decline to argue. Without saying that they are absolutely qualified for a lunatic asylum, it may at least I® inferred that there is a twist in their aesthetic faculties, which places them beyond ordinary logic. There may bo oilier people too who hold that posters are improving to the youthful mind—that their perusal “softoPs their manners and suffers them not to become ferocious.” But f> thoSo wo would recommend, in preference, tho study of an ordinary dictionary. r For instance, an advertisement largely posted- over tho town talks of “ lex talinoes,” and it would bo only after great mental exertion that the ordinary student would be able to discover that “■lex talionis” was meant. Hence our ■ advice to- tbo young is “stick to your dictionary.” Tho writing on the poster may bo largo and nicely coloured, but the spelling is not. always reliable. So much for tho quid pro quo, supposing the Council were in reality empowered to make money by disfiguring tho reserves. But if the Council will kindly turn to tho Christchurch City Reserves Act, 1877, they will see that they have no manner of right whatever to raise a sixpence in the way suggested. Certain reserves, including tho greater part of the banks of tho river, are invested in the Council “ for the use of the inhabitants of Christchurch as public gardens and promenades, subject to such rights of roads or streets as now legally exist over life same,” Evidently the reserves are vested solely for tho p" r . pose of administering t 0 the pleasure and health of the residents. They are, as Mr. Rollostou called them in the General

Assembly, the “ lungs of .the city.” What

the Council has to do with them is to make thorn as suitable as possible for the prescribed purpose. The Council is not entitled to raise a revenue out of them, ahd above all it will egregiously transgress the ordinance if it allows them to bo disfigured in any way. Then there is the market place reserve, the fire brigade reserve, and certain other reserves set apart for the erection of ornamental buildings, and, in eases only, of water tanks, but the Council’s powers With respect to these reserves is strictly limited to the purposes sot forth

jin the Act, the language of the Act being particularly precise on this point. There iis not a word of any power being granted for the’ purpose of raising money by moans of letting any portion of the reserves. If the Council accede to the request of Mr. Do Bourbcl it will not only therefore bo injuring the public by destroying the beauty of its promenades, and disfiguring the best sites in the city, but it will be acting completely ultra vires. Wo trust therefore that not only Will the request bo negatived, but that all posting hoardings will be ordered to be removed from the city reserves at an as early a date as possible,