PRACTICAL WORK A GARDEN CITIZEN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 46, 24 February 1913, Page 3

PRACTICAL WORK A GARDEN CITIZEN

SOME OF HIS EXPERIENCES CONCERNING BOURNVILLE. Although ifc may seem thai there is ; much cry and little wool about townplanning in New Zealand, in common with some other countries, in conservative England much jiolid and practical work of this sprt'has been-already done. In this desirable civic work England actually leads, and h even ahead of America aud' Germany. The subject isi one of great interest for Wellington, and some other of the larger cities of the Dominion •which Have originated some 4 thing lika "Topsy." Mr. Edwin Gilbert, a resident of Bournyiile, the Garden City near Birmingham, is at present in New Zealand, and he was interviewed l>y The j Post on the subject. He has seen a girden city grov/, and his home is in one ', he can, then, speak at first hand on the subject-. Whatever way have been the effect of Bournville upon the great business undertaking with which it is associated, it seems quite clear that when that sturdy Friend of a family of Friends, , Mr. George Cadbury, undertook the Bournviilo village scheme he «lid so frotti motives of the purest practical philanthropy. As an active worker in the Adult School work he came into most intimate relations with working men in Birmingham. For fifty years he had walked into Birmingham, to teach in this school, and he rose bright and early; fair weather or foul, 'for the long walk into that great manufacturing city every Sunday morning. As an employer, too, he came into close touch with working men, and lie then learned then* life stories from their lips and for himself. He read^ the human documents uurolk'd before' him, and realised how grievous a problem the housing (and with it the rent) j problem was, and hdw difficult its | solution. Nevertheless he gave himself no rest until he had tried to solve it. ! First he realised that people to be happy and healthy must be put on to the land and led out of the bondage of city life : out of the depressing tenement house, out of the mean and squalid ' street. Next he set ' apart a large portion, of the Bournville Estate, and after much thought he had ' a village planned and built. It would i seem from pictures of Bournville that Mr. Cadbury's mind was as large and liberal as that of the 'planners of the City ( of Christchurch, which has been, happily and aptly called a "aity of homes." The architecture of Boumville is. distinctly English; there is no suggestion of imitating America. Considering the simplicity of' their tastes and the unadorned character of their meetinghouses one would not at first look to a member of the Society of Friends for a too close insistence upon the sesthetic side of town-planning; but so it is at Boumville— but this is anticipating Mr. Gilbert's story. "George Cadbury," he said, "gave very much thought to the scheme. He would have no crowding of cottages on the land, no crowding of people in the cottages. No building, he held, should occupy more than one-fourth of the land on which it stood. There must be gardens back and front— flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees; there must be wide roads, and they must be bordered with trees'; also there must- be plenty of parks and open spaces— -in fact, one-tenth of the village or city (exclusive of house gardens and roads) must be open spaces— parks, gardens, playing fields. Altt FREEHOLD. , LEASEHOLD: j "At first," Mr. Gilbert continued, "it was George Cadbury's intention to sell the land and cottages outright in order to create a clan of small freeholders; 'but it was" found that the chief objection to this scheme would be the difficulty of ensuring that • the property - thus 'sold would be administai'ed by its owners 'in harmony With the motives and wishes which inspired the founder. This plan, then, was abandoned. Next, it was decided to grant nine hundred, and ninety-nine years' leases, changing ground rent and inserting covenants in the' leases to secure the accomplishment of the purpose of the lessor*- Some cottages were actually disposed of Under , this tenure ; but some of the objections ' in the sales of the freehold were seen, ' and these leases were discontinued. It I was next decided ,to lease building sites ' for ninety-nine years to householders who ' had Ueen resident in Bournville villages eeltain length of time, and who are , other 'ise eligible. The rents of the cot- ' tages range from 6s 9d per. week to £40 a year, -There. is no 'select' quarter in ' Bournville—large houses and small are built in exactly the same locality. 1111 * 1 The tenants pay the rates to the Birmingham* Corporation, Bournville now. being p'ino of that city ; but the village pay& a | slightly lesser rate per pound ior a long ! term of years than the rest of Binning- ) ham pays. J think the general rate of | Birmingham is over 9s in the £1. "The rent of my own house is £35 a year, and next door is-7s i 6d a week." "Don't imagine that Bournville is entirely peopled by Cadbury's employees. That is not so. It, was not- reserved for them nor laid out primarily for thoir benefit. As a matter of fact they forn; either 35 or 37 per cent, of all the.inhabitants who work at Cadbury'3,, at Birmingham, Kings, Norton, and other manufacturing centres. t should say ' quite 40 per cent 1 work in Birmingham alone, which is easily reached by railway and electric car, and is only about foui miles away. THE BOtmXyiLLE HOUSES. "The houses stand on at least' 800 square feet of ground. The tenants go into .the houses with the gardens already planted and prepared for them; tho | paths made and the lawns turfed. Standing trees wore preserved where possible, and these have been supplemented by planting the streets and lanes, some of which are named after trees. The cottages are either semi-de-tached, or in blocks of three or foUr. They have been planned so as to allow the free passage of air around them, and to have the greatest possible amount of sunshine. There are about six houses to the acre inclusive of roads. How productive the gardens are was ascer- ' tamed recently when a careful record was kept of the fruit and Vegetables taken for the house and credited to the garden at current shop prices. It was found that (excluding the labour expended on them by their owners) tha gardens yielded an average profit of Is ll,ld per weak. This, of course, came off the rent." In this connection it should be pointed out. that while Ciimatic conditions in fcngJand are generally more severe for gardening than those oi New ,_ Zealand, prices for fruib md vegetables in the phopb patronised hy working people arc generally much lov/er thoi'c than in this country. ' THE FOUNDER'S INTENTION. j Mr. Gilbert then spoke about the trust I ched of tha estate. In tUis document the founder', 0 objccl/ ie thus etated : "Tho founder is desirous of alleviating the evilj which urise from the insanitary and insufficient accommodation supplied to latg-j numbers of the working classes, and I of securing (o workers in factories eomu j-oi the advantages vi outdoor village life, j with oppor:uiiit;ca ,\>r this natural ctnd 1 hfiilthiu! occupation oi cultivating the soil. . . . Tltc object is dccluiod to Uc live amelioration, uf tho condition? of the working du&s nut] labouring popu-

lation in and around Birmingham and elsewhere in Great Britain, by the provision of intproved dwellings, with gardens and open spaces to be enjoyed therewith." Further extracts from 'the deed of foundation express the founder's btoadminded and toleranfc views, for example— "Such schools and institutions which the trustees niay build must be co organised as carefully to exclude sectarian influences, and co conducted as to 'avoid denominational jealousy.'' Again, - the _ founder desire-: that- the rents may, "if practicable, be fixed on ■such , basis as to 'make tlitm accessible to persons of the labouring and working classes, .whom it is his desire to attract from, the crowded and insanitary .tenements they now inhabit, without, however, placing them in" , the position of being recipients of a bounty I" - ■ THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. George Cadbur/"Vould seem. to have been as tolerant on the liquor question as of sectarian distinctions.- The r unanimotfse consent in writing of'all the tiustees is the necessary* precedent to thfe granting of a license or other permit. to sell intoxicating liquors, ajid sucii consent shall be given, withheld, or have any other matters attached thereto as the trustees may determine. . Further, all net profits arising from the sale of intoxicating liquor shall be devoted to securing for the village comnutaity recreation and counter-attractions to the liquor -trade as ordinarily conducted. It was. the founder's intention that "the sale, distribution, or consumption of intoxicating liquor shall be entirely suppressed / if such .suppression does not, in the opinion of the trustees, lead to greater evils." The Bournville Estate Trust, Mr. Gilbert continued, is a family _ trust at present, but as the members of the family drop out their places will be taken by* trustees, who are identified with labour interests — co-operative (-ocieties and 'trade unions, and similar bodies, nominating trustees. Every house, he said, Was expected' to yield 4 per cent, on the capital value. ' The whole of the profits from the estate, lees deductions for depreciation, are pooled — they have increased enormously of- late —and 'they are then utilised for the ey- i tension .in England .of the garden city ' idea. As a matter of fact, one-fourth of Letchworth Garden City belongs to j Bournvillo. The whole of the rente go I to the Trust Fund. Not one penny goes into private pockets. Bournville Estate itself belongs to the nation, George Cadbury surrendering all private interest in it, the gift, being absolute, no part of the capital or revenue returning to the donor his representa--tives. t - It was further learned from Mr. Gilbert that Bournville Village was from the beginning a paying undertaking ; it had accomplished the founder's generous desire to give healthy and pleasant workers' homes j it left the tenants' selfrespect intact, the administration was wholly unsectarian and non-political. The residents hay« a Village Council, elected by themselves by ballot; and a Tenants' Society for building members' own homes. Bournville has- benefited largely by gifts from the Cadbury family, to whom 'it owes its schools and meeting houses, and other public buildings, not forgetting almhouses for the aged, and a Children's Home. But, all the same, Mr. Gilbert showed that the village ie a business success, achieved by a business man, plus a practical philanthropist, a member of that exceedingly shrewd, practical, but, withal, generous Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakera.