FOR THE FUTURE. MUNICIPAL IDEALS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1909, Page 3

FOR THE FUTURE. MUNICIPAL IDEALS.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LORD MAYOR OP SYDNEY. (From Our Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY J 14th July. [The city oE Sydney was incorporated in 1842. It is governed chiefly by a Consolidating Act of the New South Wales Parliament, passed in 1802. Citizens are property-owners of £5 annual value, leaseholders of £25, occupiers and lodgers of £1 annual value, with one vote each. There are twenty-six aldermen, two for each of thirteen wards, elected for three years. The Lord Mayor is elected by the aldermen annually from their own number, and may be continuously re-elected while he remains an alderman. New streets are not le6s than 66ft *?ide, lanes 20ft ; building is subject to the usua' regulations, which are not yet sufficient for the full purpose of city improvement. (Incidentally, the council is trying to round corners at important crossings.) The council does not supply water, gas-lighting, sowerage, ot tramways. The tramways are controlled by Government ; water and sewerage are controlled by a board, dependent on Government ; the city is lit with gas by a private "company ; the municipality supplies electricity for power aqd lighting; whaives are controlled by a harbour board, dependent on Government. Rating is on the annual improved value of properties, less 10 per cent. The maximum general rate may be 2s in the £ annual value. The * present rate is Is 9d. This rate, the sole rate levied, yielded £194,626 in 1903. The estimate of total 1909 revenue is £284,321. The municipal assets were valued in 1908 at £2,618,867; liabilities, £2 - 407,476, including debentures current £2, 105,000,_ paying an average interest of £3 18s 3d per cent. The city comprises an area of 3^68 acres,, with a population of 128,500 (excluding suburbs). The improved capital value of Sydney city property is £49,060,600. Allen Taylor, who was Mayor of the suburb of Annandale for six terms, became a city alderman in 1902, was from 1904 to 1906 Lfcrd Mayor of Sydney, and is now, in the first year of his second term of office. Born in New Sonth Wales, he is a Sydney merchant, fortyfive years of age, noted for his progressive municipal spirit. In an interview specially granted to our correspondent, Mr. Allen Taylor said :] "All my experience, all my reflection, go to emphasise this municipal maxim : Build for the future. The greatest municipal drawbacks of Sydney aie due to tho want of municipa' foresight twenty-five years ago, fifty years ago, or perhaps ten years ago — perhaps to-day. That is to a great extent unavoidable. Human vision is limited ; and the founders of Sydney could not have anticipated that in little more than a century — little more than the lifetime of a good old Englishman — there would be 600,000 inhabitants in the city and suburbs. But to some extent it is avoidable. The situation of Port Jackson in relation to New South Wales should have been earlier appreciated. It was appreciated ; it could nob fail to be appreciated ; yet the immense importance of the situation was not appreciated. PerhajSs we do not fully appreciate it yet. "That is why I say : Build for the future ; allow for your growth. If an error is made, it will bo on the safe side — the right side. T)o you know that the population of Sydney has doubled in less than a single generation ? If tho rat 2 of increase continufs, we shall have two million people here long before the end of this century. And Pitt-street, most of George-street, and Oxford-street — with other main city arteries — are only 66ft wide, and are asked to carry heavy traffic from the shipping. From Woolloomooloo Bay on one side to Darling Harbour on the other, the heavy shipping traffic still passes over city streets 66ft wide. What will the people of the future do? How great an expenditure will they have to face if we do not provide for them 1 How great an expenditure could we have saved if the people of tha past had pro Tided for us? "The problem of traffic and streets will have to be solved, and every year that passes adds to the difficulty and expense of solution. Even fo_r pedestrians and light traffic the street 66ft wide is not sufficient for a city of the magnitude of Sydney — much less for thr much greater magnitude of the city that Sydney will become. And tramlines run in tht>t 66ft street. Heavy sea-borne traffic comes along it, for often there is no othei- outlet from tha Avharves to the> stores. Yet te widen the street or evade the traffic involves an expenditure which we shrink from contemplating even now, yet which the future must face, though every year ;t; t grows vaster. How much would we have gained if our forefathers had built for the future, and given us streets 90ft or 100 ft wide? "As you know, central Sydney lies between the three harbour 'bays I have mentioned. And much of ,the heavy shipping traffic comes across the spokes of the wheel and congests in the hub, or passes through the' hub to get to the other side. How much should we have gained if our forefathers had seen the plain necessity of providing for heavy traffic round the rim of the wheel, to be carried to its destination along the spokes, instead of across, leaving the central city unencumbered? At what immense daily cost in labour, time, and convenience to the citizens of Sydney do we perpetuate the present plan? The heavy shipping traffic of Melbourne never ■pomes near the central city, where population crowds and business is concentrated Sydney is a city grown — Melbourne is a city planned — built for the future — and the gain to Melbourne cannot he estimated too highly. The next generation, if it is grateful, will never cease blessing the founders of the city for the wide streets that now may seem a little too wide. And if the next generation is ungrateful, what does it matter? They will bo our children, enjoying the fruit of tho tree we> have planted. "The Harbour Board has now planned the construction of a road for heavy traffic round the western foreshores of the city. After more than a year's work, the important Royal Commission for the improvement of the city haa just presented its report to Government. Much of that report necessarily deals with the question of remodelling streets that are now found unsuitable or insufficient for the tiaffic. In other words, much of the report is concerned with tho urgent necessity for correcting the errors of the past. "The municipal difficulty is always the rating. Our predecessors often ehrank from imposing a rate higher than seemed necessary for their own immediate needs. And we shrink, too. Well, my thirteen years of municipal life have convinced me that the best rate is the high rate — with value got for every penny. When that condition is observed, the high rate is the rate that pays the ■municipality and pays the people — provided it is supported by capable administration on business lines. Wide streets

cost more than narrow ; but wide streets hold more people, and more people do more business, and more business make property more valuable. When congestion reaches a certain point, business goes elsewhere. The more people you attract to come and remain, the more valuable property becomes. Thus the more convenient and the more attractive you make your city, tho higher you raise the value of property. That is the narrow view of municipal life, coinciding with the large view, and my experience teaches me it is the true view. Therefore, I r>ay that in building for the future you build for yourself, and in keeping the rate up you are keeping up your fortunes. And Sydney is growing .«o fast that you -do not have to look ahead fifty years for a return. You see it in twenty years, you see it in ten years. "Ample means of access, amplo convenience for transport, the ample supply of pure air and pure water, light and cleanliness — these are the municipal utilities which should be built for the future. Municipal adornment should be studied as well. A beautiful city makes beautiful citizens. The man who grows up in splendid streets, among noble buildings, subject to the refining influence of art and literature and music, is going to be a better man than the man grown in gloom and squalor, surrounded by ugliness. All these things the city owes to its citizens, and it is our duty in the present to supply them as far as we can, building for our children, building for the future. A modern city should be the home of the highest intelligence,' and that intelligence should permeate every act and fact of life, so that the people of the city absorb its manifestations as unconsciously as they breathe. Sydney is wonderfully gifted by Nature, and wonderfully spoilt by Man. "Yet you must not take that unfairly. So much remains to do that we are apt to forget how much has been done. A very great deal has been done. It is a matter of municipal money as well as municipal brains, and until a few yeais ago we had only half our present income. In any case, I lay stress on past errors only in order to prove the necessity for present action. We are the people who hold the destiny of the city in our hands. In a growing city, every year that passes adds to the difficulty and cost of retracing false steps, of grasping missed opportunities. Ihe task which, with a hearty municipal effort, may just be accomplished to-day, will seem to-morrow too big for accomplishment. Therefore, I say, Build for the Future, and build Now."