The Dominon. MONDAY,- JANUARY 30, 1911. THE CITY AND THE STATE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1038, 30 January 1911, Page 4

The Dominon. MONDAY,- JANUARY 30, 1911. THE CITY AND THE STATE.

Since the appearance of our article on town-planning about a fortnight ago, we nave noticed with considerable satisfaction that the subject is beginning to be talked of in a way which seems to indicate that practical measures, may bo taken .in the not very distant future. Mr. Fowlds, on his return 1 from' South Africa, spoke of town-planning as a matter of urgency, and very properly emphasised that aspect of it which is .concerned with providing open spaces and recreation grounds adequate to tho growing requirements of our cities. Dr. Findlay, in a lecture at Dunedin, gave to townplanning a prominent placc' among the methods which ho thinks should bo adopted to check that racial degeneration of which he' painted so gloomy a picture. Ms. 0. W. Adams, speaking in the same city, induced the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors to adopt a resolution looking to legislation on the lines of the English Town-Planning Act. These arc good signs—especially the last—but we could wish for better. Town-planning requires the co-oper-ation of survoyors, as well as architects (of whose interest in the subject there was a welcome indication in the speech of Mr. Atkins at the architects' dinner the other day). It requires also the co-operation of the Government, but it is and should be the affair mainly of the general body of the oitizens and their elected local authorities. Those are the people whose interest we particularly desire to see awakened.

We do not—at least not yet— charge them with apathy. What there is of town-planning now going on in this country is chiefly the work of the municipalities, and town-planning questions arc constantly coming before them, but they have 110 policy. That is scarcely their fault, for they are without the means to frame a policy or the power to execute it. In developing, improving, and extending tho city arid suburbs, the Wellington City Council-lives, so to speak, from hand to mouth. It widens a street, makes a road, approves a sub-division, lays a tramway, clears a slum area, builds a sea-wall, forms a recreation ground, or sets out a plantation, according to the funds available and the local pressure exerted, and not as portions of a general scheme. And living from hand to. mouth is apt to be an expensive process. In the making of a city it means such things as cutting two tunnels through a hill where a single wider one would have been sufficient, paying heavy compensation for land taken for streetwidening, consuming the time of the Engineer's, Department in investigating the. suggestions of ratepayers' associations, running tho tram-cars round corners that should have been unnecessary, and trying to bring order into' the chaos of a suburb whore "public roads" have been absorbed in private back-yards and traffic has been deflected chains away from its intended courses. The Wellington City Council at evcry> one 1 of its meetings deals with quostions which ought to be considered in relation to a general scheme. For example, at last Thursday's meeting, it decided to tell the Brooklyn Municipal Electors' Association that there is no money this year- for making recreation grounds at Brooklyn; to lease a section of the . Town Belt to the Kilbirnie School School Committee for 21 years; to erect a £000 building in Post Office Square; to stop the unauthorised beautification of tho Town Belt by gorse; to leave the Reserves Committee and the' City Engineer to elaborate a schemc for the improvement of the reserves at Lyall'Bay; to negotiate for the purchase of more street-widening land in Willis Street; to sell a section in Salamanca Roacl to the Hospital Board j to ask the Government to re-

survey the streets of Vogelfcown; and to endeavour to acquire land for a reserve at Evans Bay. Any of these decisions may have been right, but their rightness- would bo more apparent to the ratepayers if they were items in a programme previously drawn up by a combined body of experts anc! representatives. Such a programme, if well thought but and put into effect as occasion might serve, would bo in the long run economical. Property-owners would usually find that any sacrifices they were called upon to make would be compensated through the general improvement of the neighbourhood. It is for the local authorities, who are for the most part faithfully exercising their' present limited powers, to earn a further claim upon the gratitude of their constituents by adopting broader and more constructive ideas, and demanding the facilities for translating those ideas into material realities. The English Town-Planning Act, which will, of course, be studied as a model for New Zealand, is a measure for giving new powers to municipal councils. If a council neglected to exercise those powers, the Government, ii\ the form of the Local Government Board, may step in and undertake the work. The latter provision should be unnecessary where local patriotism and rivalry are so strong as in most of_ the towns of New Zealand. Beautifying societies, ratepayers' associations, and progress associations, wherever' they exist, should welcome the new ideas. Moreover, one cannot feel much confidence in any town-planning -efforts of a Government whose gropings towards Dominion-planning in the matter of roads and railways, are so much a matter of _ vote-catching. What is needed is an increase of the powers of local bodies, not an addition to the already too-numerous activities of the State. Rather than that, town-planning might even-wait a little longer.