SUBURB PLANNING: LAND & ACCESS

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 37, 12 August 1920, Page 6

SUBURB PLANNING: LAND & ACCESS

In any consideration of the housing question, permanent construction, sufficiency of land, and sufficiency of access ' thereto should always be prime factors. ' There has, however, been little evidence that the Government has given any of; these three factors adequate attention. Certainly no Minister has said anything worth noting on the superior economy (in the long )'u»; cf i»ius* butft ci ps«»»- '

nent materials, and on the relative importance of a sufficient cement supply; on the advantage of discreetly purchasing large areas of land for home-building, and thus securing the betterment of the public expenditure; and on the parallel advantage of serving the acquired land efficiently and cheaply with publiclyowned transport, such as railways or tramways, cheap transport being an essential clement in suburban rent. A real housing campaign in Wellington would have as its first objective the bare land on the railway and tramway routes, particularly the large unbuilt-on level areas which flank long stretches of the twenty miles of railway connecting Wellington with Upper Hutt. By duplicating the Lower Hutt-Upper Hutt railway line (already possessed of several long sidings) and by adjusting the timetable accordingly, the State could easily coax population from the city to properly built residential suburbs on areas now exclusively given up to grass or gorse. As a reminder of the importance of the land and access aspects of housing, the Central Progress League intends to urge the Prime Minister "to acquire lands adjacent to the railways, and in the vicinity of cities, so as to provide cheap building sites, which, with, cheap transit, will help to solve the housing problem." While on this subject, the League might also ask the Prime Minister to remember, in his new railway tariff, the importance of low suburban fares as a check upon city congestion.