WILL EXPAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 9

WILL EXPAND.

MAYOR'S PROPHECY.

FUTURE OF SYDNEY.

CABINET ORDERS SURVEY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 21.

The retiring Lord Mayor (Sir Norman Nock), who, recently visited New Zealand, this week mentioned several tilings which be would have liked to have accomplished during his term of office. Among them be emphasised the need, for the unified planning of the future of Greater Sydney, particularly the control of factory areas to keep them away from residential ones, and of parks and playgrounds.

He declared that Sydney, already, one of the great cities of the world, would expand in future beyond any present conception, and that its natural beauty and ideal climatic conditions offered town-planners a unique chance to realise some of their dreame.

As an aid to this, Sir Norman has suggested that every building erected should have its life declared. At the end of its life the owner would have either to pull it down or reconstruct it according to the latest standards. Sir Norman argued that this plan wouU achieve three purposes; it would ensure the gradual disappearance of obsolete buildings which owners are prone to leave standing ae long as possible;" it would help to stabilise the building industry, and it would rationalise the whole of the problem of city real estate. Offsetting the sinking funds that would have to be established for the writingoff of a building within its lifetime would be taxation allowance for depreciated values.

The State Government is also thinking of tho future; in fact, it hae made a start with ambitious plane which are based on the expectation that there will be a boom in migration and industrial exj>aneion after the war. When the war ends the Government expects an influx of immigrants from war-wearied Europe. It believes that New South Wales could carry a population of 20,000,000 (more than ten times the present population) if the State's resources were fully and intelligently used.

Survey of Resources. As a first step in its development plane, Cabinet has charged the Minister of Mines and Forests (Mr. Vincent) with the duty of taking a complete survey of the State's resources. The first area to be examined will be the northeastern portion of the State, for which plane include construction of the Inverell-Guyra-Dorrigo railway immediately after the war, development of Coff's Harbour as a deep sea port, development of 26,000 horse-power at the junction of the Styx and Macleay Rivers, textile and paper industries, and the development of bauxite deposits from which aluminium is made.

The comprehensive nature of the survey on which the Government has embarked can be gathered from a list of some of the points which it will include: Possible hydro-electric sittfs and town water supplies, roads and other transport facilities, rainfall and details of river volumes, underground water supplies, mineral deposits, forests and timber possibilities, soil protection and river cpntrol, possibilities of new industries, geology and plant life and possibilities of introducing new crops. When the survey of the north-eaetern area has been concluded, other districts will be similarly investigated until the resources of the whole of the State have been tabulated. It will then be poeeible, theoretically at any rate, to plan the development of population and industries 3d as to relieve their present congestion around Sydney.