NATIONAL DECAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 25, 31 January 1911, Page 11

NATIONAL DECAY.

.THE TREK TO THE TOWNS. IMPORTANCE OF T(SKVNPLANNING. ADDRESS BY DR. FINDLAY. SU>adilv & subject, which has not been ignored by New Zealand's press during tho paat few years though overlooked by most politicians, is getting some notice Rmo«g tho public. The importance of town-planning is at last being grasped. Two AJitiieUsre of the Crown (the Hon. Dr. PindUty and the - Hon. G. Fowlds) avr> active enthusiasts, and as the Governor is v zealous "town-planner" one may hop© that the Government will be soon moved to do something better than "keep steadily in view" a matter that has been far too long out of the State's sight. AVhen he was in Dunedin recently Dr. Findlay gave an address on "Urbanisation and National Decay," and an important part of his discourse was concerned with town-planning. His purpose was to show that the trek of population was ever towards town* and cit- j iefi, and very many towns and cities were not planned on lines to healthily accommodate the increasing population. THE CAUSES OF URBANISING. The causes for the urbanising were not far to seek, said Dr. Findlay. First, the city offered excitement and greater diversity of amusement, and the increasing pursuit of pleasure was an. outstanding feature of most modern highlycivilised nations. Hence, the city was sought as an escape from rural monotony. It seemed to offar greater chances and higher wages. The more intelligent and robust disliked the prospect of being nothing more than agricultural labour" &rs earning a weekly wage. In the Old World, at least, the chance of a labourer getting a piece of land of his own to farm was remote. Those reasons might be multiplied, but they mainly accounted for the drift to the cities. As Mr. A. W. Smith showed in his work on "Physical Deterioration," it waa often the best of the. rural population — those themselves the most vigorous and most likely to be the parents of vigorous chil- , dren — who suffered in greatest number ; the individual deterioration produced by towns. No nation could go on indefinitely withstanding that drain upon its fountains of vitality. LESSENING OF VITALITY. Dr. Fothergill and other writers had shown that the influences of city life upon its inhabitants were a lessening of vitality and a diminution of .the birth- 1 rate in all but the least desirable classes. It had been estimated that, taking rural districts generally, the birth-rate was I 33 per cent, higher and that the chil- ! dren were of a better, healthier physique j than in the cities. But for fuller proofs j of ,aU this he referred his hearers to Mr. j I Beale's ' compilation on "Racial Decay. "J In New Zealand, city and Lown life with high house rents went far to account for the low birth-rate. In Wellington, where rents were perhaps highest, the pracj tice of a workman renting a nouse and • sub-letting some of the rooms and nimi self living with his wife and perhaps children in two or whatever number remained, was increasing. That was inimical to the cradle. Children, under such j circumstances, were not only much in i the way, but had no proper chance of I play and fresh, air. City lile, too, under those conditions, tended not only to unfit women for motherhood, but to disincline them towards it. He need not contrast all that with the greatly improved conditions the country offered not only to but for children. THE STATE'S PART. It was increasingly seen, continued the Minister, that twb objects should be pursued as among the cardinal aims of Government: (1) To keep people on th© land 5 (2) io enforce and assist the most approved methods of town-planning and improvement. Already 2\ew Zealand cities had what might well be called slum quarters, and if the public did not resolutely set themselves to resist the force of private interests and compel town-planning methods, with the best sanitation and air spaces, the future would find the cities greatly grown in. the number of population, but also greatly in their slums . High rents under present conditions had not only an economic aspect, but also a racial aspect, and while 'cities tended, as he had shown, to national decadence, it became the first duty of the State to check the agents of that 1 decadence to the fullest extent of its powers. The homes of the people, especially those whose income was smallest, were a direct concern of the State, and that became clearer and clearer if students approached those question*! though the science of eugenics. Townplanning, then, and the improvement of the dwellings of the workers and the : playgrounds .of their children, became one of the objects of such a society as the one he was addressing. So, too, was that other great aim and duty of Gov- ! ernment the settlement of an even greater proportion of the population on the coil. The necessity for that was being recognised in all advanced countries. England, under recent legislation , had tiegun the work in earnest, but not until several Continental nations had already proceeded far on the same road. THE HEALTHY LAND In New Zealand, as elsewhere, two things must be done to achieve that end. Land for settlement must be found, and country life must be made faa- more attractive. The varied pleasure* and comforts of a city could not, of course, be supplied, but in New Zealand they could add much to the attractiveness of country life by better communication in the shape of roads and railways, and by such utilities as echoofc. telephones, public halls, and libraries. Putting that in a phrase, they must do what they could to prudently urbanise the country. He would not elaborate the details of that view. Those present knew that everywhere the civilised world presented proof -that one of the best aids to eugenic aims was to draw people to the land. There was absolutely no need to* draw population to the cities — that drift, must, indeed, be stopped. Passivity, inaction in that matter on the part of the State, it was fully recognieed would not do. At any cost, if this country was to rice to greatness, it must check the agents of degeneration an 3 promote those that would improve the physical and mental qualities of ite people.