TOWN PLANNING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 8

TOWN PLANNING

"A JOB TO BE DONE"

GOVERNMENT POLICY

PROPOSED SURVEY

(Special to the '^Evening Post.") TIMARU. This Day. An announcement that two town planning.-'Schemes-had been approved by the Town Planning Board was made by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) at the Municipal Conference at Timaru last night. The Minister stated that two other schemes were almost ready for provisional approval, and a number of other local bodies were well advanced with their schemes.: Mr. Parry said that the two schemes already sanctioned were for Timaru and Papatoetoe, and he paid a tribute to the local bodies concerned. He realised that local bodies were entitled to more assistance in that work than they had received in the past, and a specially-constituted committee had been appointed to draw up a set of model clauses for the guidance of local bodies in their schemes. In addition, as the former town planning adviser had been transferred to the Housing Construction Department, the question of reorganising the town, planning work had been reviewed. It had been decided to; follow the English precedent of having the town planning officer attached to the staff of the appropriate Department. The work would thus come directly under the control of the Minister in charge. To this end Cabinet had agreed to the appointment of a highly-qualified town planning officer to the staff of .the Internal Affairs Department, who would Work in close contact with the Town Planning Board and would co-operate, with local bodies in facilitating the principles of town planning as applied to conditions in the Dominion. Arrangements were just about complete for the appointment to be made. Any delay there had been had resulted from the determination to secure the best man possible for the job. MISTAKES OF THE PAST. "Of course, we realise the difficulties that are ahead of town planning," said Mr. Parry. "It would be a simple matter in the light of the knowledge we now possess to plan anew our cities and towns, but the difficulty we have' to face is the fact that cities and towns have sprung up frequently in a haphazard sort of way, and it will take years to bring them up to anything like a desirable standard of town planning. What we are aiming at, however, is that in the future towns should" be properly planned from a town planning standard and the mistakes of the past not allowed to occur again. "I propose also to institute a comprehensive survey of New Zealand, with the idea of providing data on which local government can, in future, work more efficiently. In order to prevent-a storm of protest being made to me from certain ' quarters when these remarks are read,' let me say that 1 do not propose to invoke the provisions of the Town Planning Amendment Act, 1929. That Act, which was undoubtedly experimental, had a very desirable objective, but I know there were some serious objections to the methods it proposed to achieve those objectives. Discussion now as to whether those methods were right or were wrong would serve no useful purpose whatever. Suffice it to say that there is a job to be done, and it can be done in such a way that there can*'be no possible objection if we set out to pull together. WORKS OF EXPEDIENCY. "I attach very great importance to this proposed survey. Since I have been a Minister of the Crown, I have frequently found myself voting in Cabinet for expenditure of large sums of money on roads, bridges,, and other public facilities. On' the face of it, the proposed work seemed right, but each time I have wondered whether, if a really scientific survey had first been made, we would be constructing' roads, bridges, and other facilities at the same points and in the same directions. I have felt several times that the work .was one of expediency or that we were just slavishly following the route that seemed to be right or that had been left by our predecessors. In other words, have we not already constructed i-oads and bridges, and even railways in fact, that later years have proved wrong? I am not blaming anyone particularly for such a lack of information. t know that past generations have had their problems, the same as we have ours. But I do hope that, as the resujt of the survey, we will bo able to plan our works and methods in the future so- that a repetition of this will not take place. "The question oi' immigration has always been a prominent issue with up, and it has recently become a more prominent one still. If we are going to bring people to this Dominion, then we do not want to have them' treading on each other's toes: We want to know what there is for them to do and how they are best going to fit in to the work and life of the community. A proper regional survey, which, after, all, is really a national survey, will help us" to solve this problem. SCOPE OF SURVEY. "The survey will involve a great deal more than mere physical and geographical features. On the physical side it Will involve a survey, of the natural resources, such as water, soils,'and climate, problems of transport and land utilisation, land tenure and the like. But having surveyed the physical problems, it is most important that attention should be paid to the sociological questions at issue. Problems of the trends of population, regional distribution and migration, public welfare, problems of health, recreation, the pos-, sibilities for the effective utilisation of leisure (I mentioned both these matters in my address to you last year, and we are making progress with them both) must all find a place in the survey. It is hoped that from the 'survey will emerge, not only a factual statement of conditions as they are, but some recommendations as to the lines along which we should move in order to promote greater service to the- community as a whole. When it is found possible to commence this survey (and the' exploratory work has already been done), it is confidently expected that the local authorities will co-operate to the very best of their ability."