THE PUTARURU PRESS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1929. CIVIC PRIDE.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 274, 7 February 1929, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1929. CIVIC PRIDE.

’Phone 28 - - - P.O. Box 44 Office - - - - Oxford Place

THE motives which prompt some people to support policies of obstruction and destruction in civic affairs are hard to understand. It may be excessive materialism or simply an unconscious desire for notoriety. Be this as it may every now and then, in most towns, such citizens inflict their views on the community with v stubbornness which is worthy of a better cause.

Such mentalities are not confined to any one country, but are often in evidence in many New Zealand towns. Unthinkingly they advocate the destruction of noble arboreal specimens, the placarding of the countryside with hideous notices, opposition to schemes of beautification, and many other such movements which show a lack of appreciation of the beautiful. In one sense they may do good, for they often help to arouse in others that truer sense of civic pride which is too often allowed to become lethargic by those who recognise the benefits, both from an aesthetic and material point of view, of a city beautiful. That it is well for citizens to be always on guard, is evidenced once again, this time from Adelaide where an attempt is being made to destroy an avenue of ancient elms. Writing on the subject the local Advertiser says: “ It is gratifying to find that civic pride is far from being an extinct force in Adelaide. Not that the citizens of the capital have a monopoly of local enthusiasm. . .

But the agitation regarding the North terrace elms is proof not only that the citizens are possessed of civic as well as national pride, but also that they are strongly imbued with an aesthetic sense, and a quite psssionate desire to retain for Adelaide its traditional reputation as the Queen City of the South. . . The civic pride of some cities has taken the form of disparaging others. Sydney and Melbourne probably do not l regard one another more disdainfully than Glasgow does Edinburgh, and vice versa. But it is the other form of civic- pride which Adelaideans have cultivated, viz., that which prompts them to make themselves and their city worthy of each other. In the beautification Of the city and its immediate environs trees and shrubs have played so conspicuous a’ part that it is not unnatural that surprise should have mingled with the resentment which greeted the proposal to deprive the north side of North terrace of the trees that do so much to enhance its beauty, giving an almost cloistral aspect to the path they fringe and providing a welcome shade in summer to those who use it.” Adelaide .has earned renown as a city of culture, simply because its early leaders recognised and practised a high form of civic pride. In the comments quoted this is made very plain and Adelaide’s experience should be a lesson to all younger communities.