TOWN PLANNING EXHIBITION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26180, 2 August 1950, Page 6

TOWN PLANNING EXHIBITION

OPENING CEREMONY YESTERDAY ADDRESS BY MISS NANCY NORTHCROFT “Town planning is not a new thing, but the science of town planning is comparatively new,” said the Mayor of Christchurch (Sir Ernest Andrews) when he officially opened the British Council’s Town and Country Planning exhibition in the D.I.C. yesterday. “Our own town was planned, in England; an excellent plan at the time, but to-day we find it has its limitations,” Sir Ernest Andrews said. “The basis of town planning is the health of the people. That is what we are striving for,” he continued. "Although much has still to be done in Christchurch, 'I think, even now, we can claim io be the best planned city in New Zealanfl." Miss Nancy Northcroft, town planning officer to the Christchurch City Council, spoke on town planning, with special reference to the preparation in Britain of the plans on display at the exhibition. The exhibition represented vision, courage and ability, Miss Northcroft said. “Is the planning of countryside and town important to us? I believe, very sincerely, that it must be,” she said. “I am not going to suggest that we should have started planning the moment the first settlers set foot in the country. Those early years were ones of discovery and experiment in their most straightforward form. What we are now experiencing is a period of consolidation and redevelopment I trust, still a good flavour of discovery and experiment.’’ “Are there any old areas in your own town which might be described as being on their last legs?” Miss Northcroft asked. “I think you will find there are. What are we going to do with them? We are busy building houses on the outskirts of our towns, edging further and further out into the country and stretching our services and our financial resources as we do so. Surely we are doing little more than transferring our population from one part of the town to another without thought as to how we will use the dying areas; areas already fully serviced with water and sewerage and so on. Will they remain as festering sores in the hearts of our cities to become our slums; valuable land in fact, lying almost derelict, producing little or nothing, certainly not in rates, while we empty our pockets in our efforts to meet the demands of the sprawling growth on the outskirts. Country Areas

“Can we claim that our country areas give those who work there more than a mere existence,” continued Miss Northcroft. “Can those who do not own land live an independent life in the country at all? They can work there and so long as they work there they can have a house to live in. but if they lose or leave their jobs they must lose their home too. We can be proud of the way our country is reticulated with electricity, but at what a cost. Miles of line and valuable labour are used to carry power to a single house and all costing money which- could be used for more profitable development. “It is not that I think that country people should not have the comfort of such things as ejectric power, piped water supply and so on,” continued Miss Northcroft. “It is just that I lieve we are not developing or planning our countryside to make these things, economically possible. And what is equally important, we are not developing the country in a way to make it even socially desirable. We must, I believe, think seriously about these matters and study<them. “Our problems are, admittedly, very different from those of > Britain,” Miss Northcroft said. “We are not faced with the problems of congestion. Instead we are faced with the problems, very real ones, both social and ecopomic, of a population spread very thinly on the ground.” In spite of this difference in problems it was possible to learn from the exhibition. Miss Northcroft sgid. “We will find in it the two basic principles of Town and Country Planning—survey before plan, and teamwork,” she said. “We will find in it many ideas which we may take and use in our own way for our own good, and we will find too, that there are more ways than one of doing a thing—more ways than one of living.”