CITY'S OVERFLOW

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 135, 9 June 1928, Page 11

CITY'S OVERFLOW

RAVES'AND WAVELETS SHACKS, VILLAS, HAMLETS ■'[WOKK-Y- FO'Jl COUNTIES (By "x.") Ho interesting is the report of tlio •Medical Oftieer of Heal Ik .on the sanitation of' Hid. suburban boroughs, that many people arc hoping Hint it will lie at least an annual iixtnro, as, from its position of semi-detachment, tlio Department of Health is iin excellent medium —possibly tho only medium— throiigk'which the citizens may obtain a Comprehensive view of how the local bodies as a whole, not merely individually, carry out (or fail to carry out) their public health duties. Through a report like this of Dr. JTimllny's, the citizen sees all the suburbs and suburban districts in perspective, and it is possible to assess advantages and shortcomings. No local body report gives the same opportunities of comparison. And it is important that a comparative statement should come from some unbiassed authority with a technical insight into the doings and plans of all the local bodies and without bias towards any olio, of them. \ The ring of suburban districts seems to bo complete in the- report except that it does not mclitiou Upper Hutt borough, an omission which may be regarded as peculiar, seeing that this populous borough depends entirely on night soil service, and faces the prospect of a drainage loan. AESTHETIC IDEALS: ECONOMIC LIMITS. The- report, otherwise covers a wide range, for it deals with the counties as-well as with the boroughs. 'I'ho country surrounding ■■ Wellington presents a living and fast-growing example of p/opulatioinsprcad; the surge of population from the city-centre outwards may bo studied in all its different phases of intensity; and the Department of Health —or its associated body, the Board of Health—is in a good position-to throw light on the hygienic and economic problems that ■arise at the- beginnings of settlement, and which constantly evolve new aspects' as population increases. AVellington is faced with great hy-gienic-economic problems where it overflows into the old. sea-bed and lake-bed at Miramar; where it pushes its way lip the Hutt Valley (the only remaining considerable outlets approached by level highway); and where it is piercing, or intends to pierce, the lulls in order to create- now suburbs in the valleys of the Porirua (Tawa Flat) and Wainui-OrMata. Beyond the ring of boroughs . the population-movement is honey-combing the counties and creating here and there cells of special activity, where bathers or week-enders an 4 holiday-makers congregate. These week-end settlements rapidly pass to a more permanent importance, and •their growing pains aro a. severe trial -to themselves and to the county councils. The- something-more than county councils usually do is being demanded by various nascent communities. Dr. Hndlay reports: — .In tlio eourso of time certain areas 'in both the Hutt and Makara Counties will be included in town, areas, and the necessity of following town- ■ planning principles as far as possible must be recognised. There , are. many examples at Pliinmcrton and other • places of want of foresight in the years gone by in land subdivision and type of building . erected. • The phrase "as far as possible" implies a good deal. There aro economic limits—as New' Zealand's rate-bur-•den' proves —to what can bo done (a) in the' county stage, (b) in the- road 'board stage, and (c) in that of the young' borough. But it is a question not only of what should be done, but of what should not be done; a true foresight of future town-planning needs would result in preventing the doing of various things that will be stumbling- blocks by and by. MAIN KOAD CONGESTION. ■ For instance, boroughs are formed along the line of a main load, as in the Hutt Valley. In no long time that valley will be such a focus of population that, two main roads will be. required; or, at any rate, the main road traffic will need alternative traffic ways where the main road has become the" main street of a, growing borough. The local business lifo of suck a borough tends to become centralised in its 'owJi'section of the main, road, and it is in the interests of the- residents thereof as well as in the interests of through traffic that parallel streets shall bo provided into which traffic may deviate if it wishes. That being so, subdivisions of land for the creating .of new residential quarters on cither side of the- main road should be so carried out as to provide streets parallel with the main road, and streets of somo continuity. It is planless planning if one residential block is traversed by a street a short distanco from tho main road, and if another block is traversed by another street not' in tho saino line nor of tho samo width, A "dog's hind leg" series .of secondary streets or roads (some of them narrow) docs not provide tho relief for the main thoroughfare that users',thereof and residents therein (other than business people), would like to see. In Upper Hutt township, for instance, there is no properly aligned parallel road system, from north to south, to give traffic an. alternative, and the samp is true- from Silverstream through Trcnthaiu to Upper Hutt. As a great deal of tlio 'land is still incompletely subdivided —and in somo cases, outside of tho township,?, not subdivided at all—a proper local body supervision of subflivisional plans should assure tho creation of parallel streets, both in tlio interests of to-day aiid in .the interests of tho future. It is no answer to sny that tho traffic will go where tho bituminous pavement is; even to-day the1 traffic, docs not always go whore the bituminous pavement is, •'and in tho days to' conio bituminous pavements will not all bo on tho ouo lino of thoroughfare. The population, that (he Hutt Valley will carry will compel' some diffusion of traffic, and a good deal of road-straightening and xoad-widening will be saved iv tlio future by fore-sighted action in the present. ■ In-Lower'-Hutt, also, tho provision of north-and-south traffic, has not been i'ar-sighted, but some effort is being made' to 'correct the bridge error and to provide suitable avenues between Pc'tone and Lower Hutt west of tho river, while Eandwick Toad is being reshaped to .assume- a new arterial importance cast of the .river. COUNTIES AND MOTOES. Reporting separately on tho two counties,-. Dr. .JPindlay . finds that in Makara,. the .. bylaws are "efficient" and:that "tlio county administration is ably carried out. The seaside resort of .Titaiii' Bay needs careful watching. Hutt County.—With the advent of tho motor-car, many holiday habitations aro erected. In these there is a great tendency to shirk Hie bylaws as regards sanitation and buildings. -Iwould direct the attention o£ Ihe council particularly to these, points." Whether tho Hutt County Council has a. standard "typo of building" for holiday habitations is-ftofj-.'Bicar, but;

it is very obvious that many and varied types exist in the county. In tho Hutt Valley can be found some of tho nicest and neatest week-end places discoverablo anywhere—also somo that tlo not merit that description. The motor vehicle has vastly extended tlio range of the holiday-maker and' week-ender, .freeing him from dependence upon iixcd iron trucks, with tlio result that his "holiday habitation" has appeared in places where it was not dreamed of a year ago; and the problem is to fix a standard that will be sufficiently hygienic' and aesthetic without having the economic effect of unduly checking tho movement. Where the one-room-ed wharc blazes the track, the weekcud cottage will in due course follow, if- the whn.ro and its associations aro kept up to a reasonable level of quality. The question is whether county administration is really interested in the .orderly evolution ' of tho "holiday habitation"' and iv the fostering of a. class of settlement which, to begin with, is non-continuous, and which brings with it new traffic demands on secondary roads. The difficulty of reconciling purely farming interests with residential or part-residential (weekend) interests is chronic in counties, and it also exists to no small extent in many boroughs, as is clearly proved by numerous applications for severance of farm lands. These issues of local government, in its urban versus rural aspect, coino to a head in tho case of the Otaki borough, and if tho report of the commission of inquiry thereon proves to be a statesmanlike document, it may become- of constructive value not only in dealing with Otaki but in approaching tho general question. . . —t