A NEW ERA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 3

A NEW ERA

TOWN PLANNING

GOVERNMENT'S INTEREST

The Government was ready and willing to proceed at the first favourable opportunity with a comprehensive consolidating town-planning Bill, stated the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) in a luncheon address to the Town Planning Institute yesterday.

The Minister said that a Bill was about to be introduced to Parliament when war broke out. It might be, however, that the delay caused by the war had served a useful purpose. "Since this war started," continued Mr. Parry, "our ideas about the scope and the functions of planing have been steadily expanding. It is possible that the Bill, as it stands, will prove to be obsolete before it even sees the light of day and that even if it had reached the Statute Book far-reaching amendments would have been necessary. It seems to me that fundamental changes are taking place in our approach to the whole question of town-planning and it is good to realise it. "A town is not so much a collection of streets and buildings and industries, as a group of people, and the basis of our plans in the future must be sociological, rather than economic. Under the old regime our towns were planned largely in the interests of industry and commerce, while the welfare and often the health of the inhabitants were neglected. Our idea today is that our towns first and above all are places in which to live. In planning our towns we must think first in terms of human welfare and happiness. Industry and commerce must be regarded not merely as a means of paying dividends or wages, but rather of satisfying human needs. of raising pur standard of living, and of enabling us to get more pleasure and satisfaction out of life. I believe that we have reached the dawn of a new era."

POLICIES AND PLANS

It was necessary, however, said the Minister, that plans should be made now so that they could be put into operation immediately the war was over. Before plans could be made there must be policies. He inquired if the institute had formulated any policies with respect to such matters as national planning, regional planning, decentralisation, the size of towns, houses versus flats, population and building densities, the control of architecture, and the preservation of rural amenities.

"I feel we could give a lead to the world in town and country planning, as we have done in social security," stated the Minister. "Actually, the two things are very closely allied. It is a paradox to talk of social security while any of our people .n.re condemned to live or to work in squalid and uncongenial or unhealthy surroundings. If I am right in my forecast of the social and economic set-up in this country after the war, to make it possible for our people to live fuller, nappier, and -richer lives, then the emphasis in town-planning will have to be placed on health and amenity." There was no wisdom in the way the land was being overcrowded with buildings in the main centres of population in New Zealand. There was a minimum standard of fresh air and sunlight the human system required to maintain a normal state of health. At the very least they ought to insist that that standard was maintained in every room, and in every habitable building, office, and workshop, _______«._«_»»-