Movement Of Urban Fence

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31163, 13 September 1966, Page 18

Movement Of Urban Fence

The people of Christchurch knew very well they just had to wait for the regional planners, and when the sign went up, the urban fence moved out, said Mr M. H. McCrostie, a member of the Real Estate Institute, last evening.

He was speaking in a panel discussion on “The RuralUrban Fringe” at the University of Canterbury Hall. No-one, said Mr McCrostie, would say “that’s the fence; it sits there, finish. “I think everyone knows someone is going to have a friend on the council, or this and that,” said Mr McCrostie. One member of the panel suggested the setting up of a natural resources organisation to which any matter of natural resources, or the proposed encroachment on them, could be referred. He also suggested people trained in agriculture should be appointed to regional planning authorities to make sure that nothing unfortunate happened by oversight. The chairman of the panel was Professor W. B. Johnston, head of the department of Geography, University of Canterbury.

Other members of the panel 1 were Mr McCrostie, the officer J in charge of the Soil Bureau, D.5.1.R., Christchurch (Mr J. j D. Raeside), a lecturer in ' geography, University of < Canterbury (Dr. W. A. V. ; Clark), and the head of the department of plant science, s

Lincoln College (Professor R. Langer). Mr McCrostie said that people in the inner areas were subsidising most persons on the fringe for transport and drainage. Dr. Clark said he could not see why persons should not

have five-acre lots on the edge of Christchurch. Before one condemned them it had to be shown economically or aesthetically that they were bad for the development of the city. “I think the problem is that we have had no plan for the way the city is to grow in total over a long period of time,” said Dr. Clark. “That is why we have these spot problems.” The Regional Planning Officer, Christchurch Regional Planning Authority (Mr K. Tyler) said that in addition to a plan, we must have a method of implementing the plan. “You must have a method of control,” he said. Mr McCrostie said that the desire of city dwellers to buy five-acre lots near Christchurch was forcing the price of land up. “Unfortunately, I don’t know how you are going to stop this,” he said. “There seems to be a tendency to get out to the two-acre or fiveacre block. People were tired of being in the city.” Mr McCrostie said that quite a few people, when they bought five-acre lots around Christchurch, had in mind that the urban fence would be extended. Mr Raeside said that he was doubtful about kitchen gardeners in Christchurch being able to outdo the productivity of the commercial market gardener when it came to the use of land. Mr McCrostie said that on the whole the vegetable gardens he had seen in Christchurch were of a “pretty poor standard.” Mr Tyler said that Christchurch families today were television and car families.