THE COUNTRY BEAUTIFUL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 4, 26 March 1927, Page 18 (Supplement)

THE COUNTRY BEAUTIFUL

PRESERVING RURAL ENGLAND A FINE EXAMPLE An organisation has been launched in England which cannot fail to meet with the hearty appreciation of all those who desire to maintain the natural beauties of their native country. It is called the “Council tot* the Preservation of Rural England.” Its objects (1) To organise concerted action to secure the protection of rural scenery and of the amenities of country towns and villages from disfigurement or injury; (2) to act either directly or through its members as a centre for furnishing or procuring advice and information upon any matters affecting the protection of such amenities; (3) to arouse, form, and educate public opinion in order to ensure the promotion of the objects of the council. The council is, apparently, not a new one, hut it has lately been able to amalgamate many other institutions which are in sympathy with the good purpose of the work. A list of them should he an interesting guide to those persons in New Zealand who feel disposed to seek similar results in this country, .’or ins .ante, the assistance has been ••ssur-'d of:--The Royal Institute of British ArchiTht Town Planning Institute. The County Councils’ Association. The National Federation of Women’s stitutes. The National Trust. The Royal Automobile Club. The Automobile Association. The Urban District Councils’ Association. The Central Landowners’ Association. The Rural Advisory Committee of the National Council of Social Service. The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association. The Rural District Councils’ Association. The Scapa Society. The Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society. The National Housing and Town Planning Council. The Surveyors’ Institution. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Building^. The Country Gentlemen’s Association, Ltd. The Royal Society of Arts. The Architecture Club. The Land Agents’ Association. The Ancient Monuments Society. • TREAT BEAUTY WITH REVERENCE In commenting upon the work of the Society it has been pointed out that the object is to teach people to treat the beauties of their native land with reverence, and the “London Daily Telegraph” points out that “the loss of future generations would be incalculable indeed if all that remained to them of the rural England which our generation has known where county specimens carefully preserved by various national or county societies —a model village here and there, a few square miles of wild moorland, a stretch of down, a reach of trout-stream, an occasional headland, a segment of a once typical bay, a saved view-point overlooking a scarred and desecrated view. , “This is not an altogether fanciful danger, though naturally it can easily be exaggerated. “With the mistakes and neglect of a hundred years plain before us, much can be done to mitigate the full severity of the blows which threaten at this time. Taste can be improved; people can be taught to admire, even if the feeling does not come naturally to them; they can be trained to care for what is beautiful and to resent its threatened loss when no good cause is assignable for its destruction. “It is the business of each age to preserve what it has inherited of beauty and to pass it on to the next unimpaired, so far as time and progress will allow. We hope the council will receive the general support of all who cherish, with a love for their beloved England, a special love for that particular little corner or angle of its garden ground which, in the old classical phrase, keeps its best smile for them.” WHY NOT HERE ? While it must be admitted that in Now Zealand we have not the rich h-Storical associations of the Old Country there is, nevertheless, magnificent possibility of good work. Year by year places of incalculable beauty are being destroyed in the Dominion, and scenes blotted out by ruthless commercial hands, which can never be replaced. Unfortunately the devastation which takes place in a young country is even more rapid than in the older portions of the world, but it is not yet too late to do much to preserve the wonderful natural beauties of our country and prevent disfigurement.