TOWN-PLANNING

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 137, 6 December 1918, Page 8

TOWN-PLANNING

i ■ . 10 tBI EBIIOB. Sir,—For some timo past I have- been interested in those interesting people, the town-planners, and, as you have always appeared to regard-them with ajinpauiv, I have asked you to state succinctly In© methods by which their objective is to be realised. You have courteously replied to my queries, but have failed to explain the methods of the town-planners, and you now refer me to the Xown-Planniug Association. Frankly, Sir, I have had that body in mind from the outset.

During the last municipal election con- ' test in this city, somebody was good enough to post me several numbers of a publication called "The Greater Wek lington Chronicle," which purported to be "the offioial organ of 'The Greater Wellington Town-Planning and Municipal Electors' Association.' " Curiously enough, there was very little about town-planning in the paper, but the- citizens were advised to elect a council 'of " business men," and incidentally Labour candidate* came in for some hard knocks, both their loyalty and their business capacity being held up to ridicule. So "far as it is possible, to reduce the 1, policy of these townplanners to definite terms, hero it is epitomised: first, that the., coaitmctioaf of public works out of revenue is a bed Business. Posterity will participate in the benefit, and hence posterity should bo saddled with the greater part of the cost. Secondly, that rates are an. evil, and the policy of business men should be to keep them down. The revenue from municipal utilities, such as tramways.and lighting, should be applied in reduction of rates! Now, Sir, I dare, to. say that these propositions are viciou*, reactionary, and 'hypocritical. Whether a given public work should be constructed out of revenue or loan money is certainly a, legitimate matter for discussion, but the essential fact is that public works inevitably enhance the value of land, not in the future, but now. Why is no reference made to that fact? Are we to believo that| nobody among the town-planners is prompted by a desire to "get rich quick" at the expense of the community here and now? is not this talk, about posterity mere camouflage to conceal the real object from 'the public? But the second proposition caps the climax. Instead of rates being att cvi), the very opposite is the fact. ' If levied on the unimproved Value of land, rates constitute a public benefit, because by rating alone can the whole people participate in their own property. The true policy is to take more and wore of the unimproved value of land, at the samu time reducing tram fares and the cost of lighting. Every line of tramway adds enough to the value of land to pay for itself. Public policy consists, not in allowing a small number of wealthy men to reap where they never sowed, but in taking the increased value for tho people. To reduce rates would be to play into the. hands of th» land monopolist and :to place a still greater proportion, of the cost of civic government on the poorest of the people. So much for our self-styled town-plainer*. That such proposals should emanate from any organisation is *. rare illustration of the daring inspired by cupidity, but to promulgate them under the gurise of town-planning is—well, "the iimit." In' conclusion, Mr. Editor, I take leave to say that the task of exposfcig the true inwardness of these pro--OOOTJS should not be left to a private person but should be the high mission of tba >ress-— j am, etc., ■ , P. S. O'REGAN. 4tn ioeoembei\