COMMEMORATIVE PROPOSALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22986, 15 September 1936, Page 8

COMMEMORATIVE PROPOSALS

Interesting proposals in connection with the commemoration of the King’s approaching Coronation relate to the promotion of schemes of beautification in the towns and villages of Great Britain. A special committee, consisting of organisations interested in horticulture and the preservation of the amenities of the countryside, has this particular matter in hand, and the plan seems to be regarded with the favour which it obviously merits. The success of it will depend presumably upon the acceptance of the suggestions that have been framed with a view to stimulating towns and villages to adopt commemorative schemes that would add permanent beautification to their environment. But proposals such as these may be expected to make a wide appeal, and they should solve in a very admirable way for many communities in the Old Country the problem of the manner in which the great event of next j r ear should be honoured in something more than a merely transient and momentarily spectacular fashion. Symbols of commemoration intended to be of a permanent character are apt to be very unsatisfactory and inartistic when in a small way they are multiplied over a countryside. But schemes of local beautification, which would include the creation of parks, gardens and playgrounds, and might be almost infinite in their variety, would be on a very different footing. These proposals respecting the Coronation seem to offer a suggestion that might be followed with advantage in connection with the commemoration of the centenary of New Zealand in 1940. The Minister of Internal Affairs has expressed his appreciation of the co-operation in the celebration of event that has been promised by local governing bodies. The more a wholehearted local participation is assured the better should be the prospect of a general achievement calculated to make the occasion memorable, as it should be, for posterity. There seems no reason why, in default of other proposals, the plan that has been put forward in the Old Country in connection with the King’s Coronation should not be adopted as a feature of the centenary celebrations in this Dominion. It would mean the avoidance of a good deal that, artistically considered, would be futile, and the establishment by local enterprise, under a common national impulse, of valuable amenities that could be enjoyed for all time by the communities concerned.