TOWN PLANNING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 64, 13 September 1909, Page 6

TOWN PLANNING.

By the cable news to-day it seems that the British Housing and Town Planning Bill is fairly safe, unless the Lords prove to be in captious or fractious mood. The measure has been finally approved by the Commons, and has been read a first time in the Upper House. The Bill, which has been more than once explained in The Post, is designed to benefit the people of Great Britain in two important ways — (1) by the correction of existing mistakes; (2) by preventing mistakes from occurring in the future. It is hoped to abolish slums and to obviate the possibility of slums establishing themselves in new urban settlemohts. The plans of proposed towns or their extensions are to show proper roading, sufficient open spaces and play-grounds to ensure healthfulness for the community. The ,need for such legislation was realised in the Old Country long ago, and even in this young country of New Zealand the importance of wise town-planning might well receive more thought from the authorities. The haphazardness of the years involving a "policy of drift" has compelled the Imperial Government to bestir itself, and a similar haphazardness, on a reduced scale, has been sadly noticeable in New Zealand.. Wellington, Auckland, Christohurch, and Dunedin — and possibly every one of the minor towns— all exhibit defects of planning, in varying degrees. Perhaps Wellington more than any of the other cities of Now Zealand is regretting to-day the deficiency of foresight in the original planners. The debates about street-widen-ing and public market sites are only part of the evidence that may be quoted to reveaJ the mistakes in the laying-out of the city many years ago," This subject has keenly interested the United States. It was discussed by a National Conference at Washington last May, and a committee was appointed to arrange for a more complete conference next yeitr. Commenting on the, personnel of the committee, the Municipal Journal of New York expressed regre^. that engineering societies were hardly i-epresented at all among the commissioners. "A city plan, comprehensively considered," stated the Journal, "is as essential as an architect's building plan. Both cities and houses have- beep enlarged Dy extensions added by amateurs, and without skill or even forethought, but tho result is seldom satisfactory. The continuous growth of the city makes the problem in its case both the more difficult and the more imperative." Appositely, to cap the argument, comes a message from America to-day that the population of New York has increased by 901,000 since 1900, and is now 4,338,000. The working of the, British measure (if it is spared by the Lords) and the investigation) in America should be very help* ful to New Zn&land,