Our Precious Land.

I hope you will read John Cox's article in this issue, for it raises what is I am sure the most important and urgent problem in New Zealand, and for that matter in nearly every other country. John Cox is surely one of our ablest thinkers. The article is especially important, not only because of its urgency, but because only a small number of informed people are yet fully aware of it and the implications for ourselves and our children.

The Gold Medal.

This year the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded its Gold Medal to Le Corbusier, widely recognised as the greatest living architect. This recognition was largely prompted by the recent completion of his greatest work—Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles. This year the New Zealand Institute of Architects also awarded its Gold Medal—the first for six years. The building is St. Joseph's Orphanage at Upper Hutt. This building or group of buildings has a quality of design that will please the more conservative members of the architectural profession and that large body of public opinion which finds satisfaction in the “cosy cottage” with its thatched roof. The last award in 1947 was for the Dixon Street Flats, and it is upon buildings of this type that I feel the Institute should bestow its honours. Public recognition of genuine contemporary work is hardly furthered by judging a building in the manner of English country domestic at the turn of the century, as the best of the year.

More Awards.

Awards may and may not have significance. It depends on the judging. But it is interesting to recall that the 1952 Sulman Prize for the best Australian house of the year was won by Harry Seidler for an outstanding house of uncompromising design. Generally house design in Australia is not at the level it has reached in New Zealand, and public appreication [sic] is even further behind. There was a great deal of indignation in Australia over this award, but in a few years it will be accepted as just another house, though a very good one. The New Zealand Institute of Architects would do well to take the opportunity it has to ensure that the outstanding houses in New Zealand do receive recognition over the more conventional “safe” designs which win the Institute's approval. Its annual Bronze Medal for houses has so often been awarded to what is to me, merely the same old thing dished up again with a different sauce, that no architect with a really interesting and “unusual” house bothers to enter.

Another Good Shop.

Three of the most interesting and better known shops selling well designed contemporary furnishings and furniture that New Zealand has to offer are Brenner Associates, John Crichton and Jon Jansen, all in Auckland. Last month saw the opening in Wellington of its first exciting shop devoted to well designed articles for modern homes. As a Wellingtonian I was much satisfied by this, for I had previously thought it necessary to make a pilgrimage to Auckland. This little shop, Stocktons, run by Harry Seresin and John Bidwell, is near to Roy Parsons, surely one of New Zealand's best bookshops. This already interesting and narrow little street gains new interest and vitality. At the opening were some superb glassware from Europe, pottery from Denmark, beautiful English fabrics from Heals, wallpapers, furniture, lamps and many other well designed objects from overseas as well as New Zealand. I saw nothing I would not like in my own home except some heavy Swedish glassware with unnecessary decoration. Let us hope Wellington will show that there was need for this shop, for otherwise it will have to lower its standards or close. But I am sure there is a very big demand and that it will do well. Its gay interior was designed by Brenner Associates of Auckland.

Hats Off.

I must congratulate and commend the Wellington City Council for the purchase of the Paramount Theatre. From the long-term view its purchase may be considered a pity since the building of the “Small Theatre” as part of the ultimate Civic Centre will be delayed for many years more. But in the meantime here is a good theatre for all the excellent people who work for amateur drama in Wellington.

My wrath had previously been aroused by the inadequacy of the present Concert Chamber and its flagrant misuse over the past years, and which oddly enough has aroused little if any protest. During the whole of June, the best month of the year for concerts and performances, the Concert Chamber is mass booked for motor-car registrations.

Mean-No-Evil.

Surely the greatest piece of foolishness for a long time was the reply reported to have been made by the Assistant Commissioner of Works to a representation from Paremata residents concerning the new highway diversion through the back of the settlement. The residents, most reasonably and with encouraging foresight, requested that it be declared a non-access motorway. The reply was a definite “No”—frontages and access were to be allowed, for it was considered that if houses fronted on to the highway, with people entering and leaving, cars parked and pedestrians walking along the road, passing motorists would take more care, slow down and so make the road safer! Can you beat this?

Free-for-All.

Who would not agree that a town should be planned before it is built or half built, rather than after it has grown into such a mess that something drastic must be done. Many New Zealand towns are at present growing up as others have done in the past, from little more than a nucleus of one or two houses, into flourishing settlements with serious development problems—problems such as scattered and unco-ordinated subdivisions, costly sewerage and water supply, roading and footpaths, the provision of parks and public buildings, parking problems, industries springing up among houses, ribbon development along the main road approaches, and so on.

One such town is Ruawai, near Dargaville, on a rich dairy flat now coming into full production. Approaching from the north, the introduction after a few scattered houses is the District High School. After a right angle turn several scattered houses on both sides of the highway, a few hundred yards further on a large dairy factory or milk treatment plant under construction, some houses round it, then more houses along the main road, a garage and a shop or two, a right angle turn revealing a cinema, several more shops and garages scattered along both sides, some open country, some more scattered houses for a few hundred yards, then a dairy factory with a dozen or more houses. And so it goes on. What sort of a town is this? Hardly a town, at all yet. But in a few years it will be as big a mess as Huntly, Putaruru or Otaki. The residents need a car or bicycle to go to the shops and from one shop to another and with danger of being knocked down on the way or splashed by passing trucks and cars. A school bus is needed from one end of the town to the school.

There are many other towns following the same pattern, and always strung along the main highway. Now whose responsibility is it to look ahead and plan? The County Council, composed of cock-sure farmers revelling in butter-fat? Perhaps it's theirs, but really they couldn't care less. The Government? Who else other than a Regional Planning Authority? But who in the Government has the responsibility to watch for these problems? And there are no Regional Planning Authorities. Here is something that needs to be tackled, for there should be enough examples of uncontrolled town growth—enough Huntlys, Putarurus and Otakis without waiting for more.