ART IN BUILDING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9103, 1 June 1908, Page 4

ART IN BUILDING.

Taken right through we can boast in Masterton of as fine a class of shops and public buildings as can be found in the best towns in the Dominion, and, indeed, better than in many places more pretensions than Masterton. Still, there are edifices which, while being very substantial and commodious, have that about them which makes them little ornament to their surroundings. It is the old saying of "spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar," and the expenditure of often as small a sum as £5 or £lO would make all the difference between plainness and beauty. It is, moreover, false economy, as the few pounds extra paid to a builder to add a little embellishment to a building adds considerably more to the selling value of premises so adorned than the amount of the outlay. There are some premises in Queen Street with facaJes which, if small, would ornament any thoroughfare in the world, as the enterprise uf their proprietors gave the plasterer a free hand. On the other hand, we have some buildings plainer than plain, and altogether too reminiscent of Jbastiles, There is a lot of Queen Street to re-build yet, and we commend, as a good business propojition, the combination of art and utility, in the hope that it will be adopted by prospective builders. It is indubitably true that the maxim, "a thing of beauty is ay y for ever," applies with peculiar emphasis to a building.