BRITAIN’S NEW SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 280, 23 August 1934, Page 4

BRITAIN’S NEW SPIRIT

Mr. W. Appleton’s Experience MATTERS MUNICIPAL “My visit to the Old Country was a real tonic. There is a new spirit in Great Britain,” said Mr. W. Appleton in an address on matters municipal as he had seen them on a recent trip abroad at the annual meeting of the Wellington Ratepayers’ Association last night. “I have no reason to be down in the dumps about New Zealand. We’re inclined to be too pessimistic at times. I think we will come out of the depression equally as well as England,” Mr. Appleton said. Referring to roads and streets, Mr. Appleton said he was surprised to find that they went in for bitumen largely at Home. He found that; generally speaking, the same principle of road formation was adopted as here —a rock foundation was tonped off with bitumen. -

One had only to go to. the Old Country to see what a wonderful asset Wellington had in its baths and beaches. The watering places of England went in for a policy of encouraging people to go to them. He was- afraid that in tbe past Wellington had not devoted enough attention to this.’ Parks and reserves were developed at Home along native lines and more could be done in this way in Wellington. • Mr. Appleton came back convinced that the day was far distant when the Wellington tramways should be scrapped. Buses at Home were used as feeders t the trams. England was gradually adopting the trackless tram, and he suggested that the trackless system would be a fine thing for the Hutt Valley. He had not seen a better tram anywhere than the new Wellington tram. Mr. Appleton found that, generally speaking, the cost of electric current in Wellington for domestic purposes compared more than favourably with the rates in England. He also came back more than ever satisfied with the Wellington municipal milk supply. , There was no doubt, he eaid, that Wellington would have to do a certain amount of town-planning. Modern factories were not going to be put in the heart of the city. In England factories were going out into the country.

The tenement blocks in- Vienna were such that the best man in the land ■would be only too glad to live in them. They were soundproof and had beautiful gardens, with lawns and tennis courts. What were called flats in Wellington were not flats at all in comparison.