A CITY BEAUTIFUL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1407, 6 April 1912, Page 10

A CITY BEAUTIFUL.

DOINGS IN SYDNEY

'EXTERI'IUSE l<UN' MAD. , '

"Sydney is fasl becoming'a city beautiful," is Hie i>iiinioii of Mr. J. 1!. J'lilmor,. town clerk of Wellington city. Ho lms returned fro.n n holiday ill Sydney, and it was the increasing beauty of the nl.ico that struck liiini must alter u two years' absence.

"One of tlie most noticeable features of municipal activity in Sydney," said Mr. Palmer, speaking of his impressions to a Dominion reporter, "is the resumption of many very' large slum areas by the City Council. '.Ncv streets are laid out iii them, and old thoroughfares :ire being widened where possible. 1 found that between 7000 and SOOtt people had been dehoused, and Ihe city i- faced with the by no means ea-y problem of housing them u'-'iui). It is remarkable that areas lrom which the cMiii'.il have romoved old unwholesome tenements are nearly all beins u«e(l or applied for us factory sites. The demands ol commerce are so insistent that this land can no longer be spared for residential site*. It is being let for factory purposes on 50-year lenses, and at the end of the term the buildings revert, without eomneiisnlijn. to the city. .Host of (he factories arc substantially built in brick, so that they will certainly outlast the term of the lease. If the prosperity continues, Sydney should some day be ono of the richest cities cf the Empire, from rentals alone. Pushed Out Into the Suburbs. "One result of the occupation of these, lands for factories is that numbers of people who used to live in Sydney, close to their work, are being pushed out into the. Httburbs absolutely against their will. There seems to be no alternative, for it is apparently quit'; impossible to iind residential sites within the actual city area. "The adjoining borjugh of Camperdown, lately taken over by the city, is also bciii.i very largely improved in the same way by the widening of many of the most important streets, and the opening up of new thoroughfares. In fact, those who know the Caniperdown of the past would' find their old borough absolutely obliterated, and a new one. arisen in its placo. All the suburbs share more or less in the general prosperity, nnd their progress has been most marked during the last two years, since the rating on unimproved value has coino into more general practice. Many of the people over there refuse to sco that the new method of rating is the cause, attributing it to the prosperity of the State generally, but I have seen areas there which 1 knew well, which were supposed to have no chance of Koi.'ij ahead, which have stagnated for years now being rapidly settled.

"What strikes a visitor most sharply is Ihe beautiful way in which the parks (\nd garde .is are kept in Sydney. Wherever a vacant patch of ground, large or small, is available, a fiower-bed is made in.it. These beds of brilliant flowers are a most pleasant relief from the dreary aspect of the ordinary roadway. These areas are not protected by railings very often, and (hero are no warning notices, but people seem to have been gradually educated to respect them as sanctuaries. We Have Nothing to Learn. "On the other hand, f still reiterate what I have said before—that municipally Wellington has nothing (o learn from Sydney. Our streets arc quite as well kept, and our city as a whole is much cleaner. Uli-3 city rervices which are there controlled by several authorities are equally well conducted here by one body. Two modern appliances T noticed (here which are not m use in Wellington. They use a motor wagon to expedite the removal of refuse from tho city, and they hnvc a motor-proni'lk'd water vehicle.

"Tho prosperity of Sydney at' present is almost boundless. Working men are at a premium, especially skilled workers. Plasterers, for liislaiK-e.-nre being offered .£1 i\ dav, and cannot bo got. [ believe, that if the rate nllered wcro 2."n. a day suHitieul men could not bo found. I met wc.ll-knoivn builders, too, who cannot get bricklayers. The fact is that to the visitor who knows his Sydney, the city presents an example of building enterprise run mad. There is at present ample justification for it in the resumption schemes beinj undertaken, and in the general prosperity, but there is an opinion among thinking men there, I gathered, that the pace is too great. Sydney has passed through bid times, and may have to meet them ng.iin, and it is almost dreadful to think what must happen to Sydney should the bade country suffer a recurrence of the drought of ten or twelve years ago, and what, must happen to the (ioO.OOO people concentrated in the city. Those who are fighting for decentralisation are undoubtedly on tho right truck, This centralising everything is one of the ills that Sydney must suffer severely from in the future. They have ports galore to which n great deal of'the traffic could 1)2 diverted, and, if it were, it would be the means of opening up great areas of country, and reducing the great strain on the liailway Department, which now is continually complaininj! ol inability to cany all the produce and passenger-freight into Sydney."