FROM THE ASHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 306, 26 December 1924, Page 3

FROM THE ASHES.

RESTORATION OF TOKIO. REBUILDING A CITY. MAGNITUDE OF THE WORK. Great calamities, such as that which fell upon Tokio and Yokohama a little jmoro than a year ago, are not always unmixed misfortunes. Sometimes it happens that they bring in their train opportunities which, however devoutly to lie wished, could never have been consummated under the old status. The Tokio that was destroyed was the result of years of growth, which drew together by ties of trade and contact, by propinquity and natural selection, a score or more of straggling villages, which annexed themselves just as they were, with their narrow, crooked streets, their market places, their shops and stores, as suburbs of the lusty and rapidly growing metropolis. In the beginninc even Tedo itself grew without much definite plan. It was a castle town, and everything was immediately connected with the Imperial Palace. With material prosperity it grew by leaps and bounds. Residential sections became surrounded by business streets, waste lands became covered with warehouses and factories, and along the railway line between Yokohama and the city, new manufacturing districts sprang up. in some cases encroaching on the preserves of the aristocratic householders. The necessity for improving Tokio was evident for severp.i years before the earthquake calamity came, and the fire that followed the shock, wiping out as it did all the unsightly plnccs. cleaning away the accumulation of years, while it inflicted an immeasurable loss in many things, brought the opportunity for reconstruction that had been so earnestly desired. To realise the magnitude of the work now being carried .on, one must have visited the scenes of the disaster, to have gazed from the Bluff upon the utter desolation that once was Yokohama, walked through the miles of ruined streets of Tokio. and stood bareheaded before the ashes of 100,000 dead collected in the grounds of the ill-fated military clothing depot at Honjo, with its Buddhist shrines, incense. and priest?. The death toll exceeded the sum total of those killed during the China-Japan and the Russo-Japanese wars. Loss of property, including , buildings, commodities, and furniture amounted to £1.000.000,000, corresponding to more than four times the cost of the two wars mentioned. The official reconstruction programme for Tokio, which is to be completed in 1928, will constitute merely the foundation for the greater Tokio, which is the final goal. The construction of the new streets is merely one part of the city's work in repairing the earthquake's damage and taking advantage of the opportunity to build a better city on the ruins. There remains the construction of a harbour for Tokio, canals in the city and to Yokohama, the building of parks, the removal of overhead telephone wires, and the laying of a modern sewage system. "The problems that confront us in the reconstruction plane," writes Mr. Hidegiro Nagata, the Mayor of Tokio, '-are not only those of to-day, but of to-morrow and fifty and one hundred years from now. 'if we can lay a proper foundation at this time, then there will be no need for anxiety as to the city's future. All the time we are keeping before us the picture of the capital which finally will .be built— a new Tokio of which 'all the Japanese nation may be proud." Travellers who have visited Japan recently make the observation that the rebuilding of Tokio does not seem to be proceeding very rapidly. The reason is obvious. Plans are being made on an elaborate scale, and part of the present work consists not so much in the construction of handsome buildings as in the provision, or improvement, of existing services. It is the same with Canberra, about which critics are prone to declare that there is little to show for the money. Much of the result of an expenditure of approximately £2.000.000 is below the surface of the ground in the foi-n of water and sewerage services. An Outline of the Plan. Following the disaster of September 1. the measures taken were prompt The fundamental principles for the restoration were laid down in an Imperial proclamation dated September 12. Plans for restoration were submitted by the Minister of Home Affairs, Viscount Goto, on September 16, and a High Council for the restoration of Tokio was organised on September 19, Then a Capital Restoration Board was formed, and members of the board, representing the political and commercial life of the capital, were sppointed by the Emperor. Viscount Goto was chosen as president, and an advisory board of experts was brought into service. Under Viscount Goto's supervision, a complete budget, amounting to £149,500,000, was wo, Ked out within a month. Finally, an amended Budget of £40,843,884 was adopted by the Diet. The first step taken after approval was the execution of the boundary survey of property and settlement. The total burnt area of the city of Tokio was nearly 2000 acres, and the making of a thorough survey and the satisfactory settlement of boundary lin.es of private property in such an extensive area has proved to be a very difficult task. By the beginning of February of the present year, 141.347 temporary buildings had been erected. This temporary work is being continued, and makes a final survey more difficult. Bridges and streets which do not affect boundary lines are already under construction. The joining of the centre city and outlying districts will be decided shortly. Health and Education. Tokio before the earthquake presented many extremely unsatisfactory features in transportation, health, sanitation, and economy, owing to the narrowness and unsystematic laying-out of the streets and canals of the city. By the new survey and settlement of the boundaries of property, these features will bf removed. Regarding the rebuilding of educational institutions, all middle schools and primary schools which were destroyed in the disaster are to be restored. The need for some form of remedial measure for the unemployment problem had been keenly felt by the authorities even before the earthquake. But its need became more urgent after the disaster, and the municipality took immediate action to establish and maintain many agencies for social work, euch as a municipal employment bureau, children's clinics, maternity homes, day nurseries, public. dining rooms, lodging houses, bath houses, and the like. Health and sanitation reform includes the development of water and sewerage an establishment for the disposal of garbage, the building of more public parks, the establishment of a central market, plans for hospitals, and so on.

Tokio Undaunted. "In the year which has passed since j the epochal catastrophe," writes Mr. I Hanihara, the Japanese Ambassador to ' Washington, "the city has adjusted itself! to the changed condition. The transportation system has Vieen enlarged with more street cars, aided by fleets; of motor buses. The railway lines serving Tokio have been improved and i expanded, millions of dollars having been expended on new stations and equipment. The streets have been ; widened and bettered, and a tremen- j dous amount of work preparatory to i. the inauguration of the general recon- j etruction has been done. The build-1 ings which were damaged by the fire and earthquake have been repaired and arc now occupied by business firms."