ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 31, 12 September 1868, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times.) Sir, — A mining district can hardly be expected to get on without some underground proceedings ; but that the inhabitants should have such an affection for "the base earth from which they sprung" as to burrow out their public buildings was a new piece of information for my weak understanding. You may imagine my astonishment, then, to read in your last issue the report of a speech by the Mayor, in which he declares that the new Atheneanm is a " catacomb," an " abortion," and a few other elegant and lively kinds of edifice. Xow, although I sympathise greatly with the offended aesthetic sense of the worthy Mayor, I have great doubts as to Hie justice or judgment of his strictures. The Athenseum building may not be very pretentious, but it is substantial, and well suited for the requirements of the place, and not at all adapted for the underground grave-yard Mr. Bastings would like to compare it to. In the course of a fe"w years, we may hope to see Lawrence adorned with many fine buildings by ihe enterprise and public spirit of her inhabitants ; but, in the meantime, do not let us forget the day of small things. The abuse of the Public Works Committee, simply for being a committee, strikes one as, on the whole, slightly irrational and dfioidely unjust. The system of selection by committee haa been generally adopted all over the world, and many of the finest buildings ever erected remain in evidence of their success. I trust we shall have no more " catacombs," and be delivered in future from " abortions," for a good, plain bnilding is, after all, better than one built in a jumble of styles, or no style at all. — I am, Sic., • Fur Jpsnru.