TOWN-PLANNING AND CITY BEAUTIFYING

Evening Star, Issue 16198, 21 August 1916, Page 5

TOWN-PLANNING AND CITY BEAUTIFYING

[By Citizen.] _ There are many misconceptions as to the true ideals of town planning. To quote from a remark made by Mr C. C. Reado on his lecture four: "Its purpose was not, for instance, the securing of nice homes with broad streets and pretty gardens for poetical people." That object may be attained, but apart from the healthy and happy conditions in life which it was the direct means of fostering, town planning was invariably a sound business proposition. It resulted in orderly, convenient designs, provided land and houses at ;i reasonable cost, also parks, open spaces, and garden plots, and ensured the community getting tho benefit of the surplus value, instead of its finding its way, as it does in Now Zealand to-day, into the pockets of individual land speculators. To-day we allow the speculative landowner to exploit for private gain the suburban areas of our cities, instead of planning them out ourselves on rational and comprehensive lines. The result is that tho whole future growth of -our towns on proper lines is seriously jeopardised. It is not only the menace to public health that must arise in time from "jerry building" and "resubdivisions." It is so often tho wholesale inconvenience, the absence of easy and direct avenues of transit, tho consequent loss to business, and finally the extravagant cost to the whole eommunity that arb helping to create a very big problem in the near future. We endeavoii, of course, to control tho present system by supervision of plans nun by certain by-laws, but these aro only palliatives, and do not deal sufficiently with the larger issues at stake. My experience of the work of the speculative landowner and jerry builder *is thatafter a few years there is a drain on tho resources of tho peop'.o -through . our municipalinies and city councils having almost invariably to spend money right and left to put _the roads and footpaths in order, to provide proper sewerage, to obtain land for necessary road' connections, and even to purchase open spaces and reserves at the top price of the market. The whole system is altogether extravagant and b.id, aud while human nature is such -as it is the only remedy is to promote legislation which takes the control of such things out of the hands of tho individual and vests it. in a body which considers the interests of -the people as a whole. At the annual meeting of the Duiicdin Amenities and Town Ph lining -Society steps wero taken to inaugurate garden competitions having for their objects the improvement of gardens in and about the City, tho beautifying of street frontages and boundary fences, and, in consideration of war-time conditions, a competition is also being held to encourage "utility gardening"—i.e., the growing of vegetables, fruit trees, etc. Judging will bo done at suitable times, probably twice in tho year, and cups and other prizes have b?en donated. These competitions aro earnestly commended to the notice of the citizens of J)unedin, and ir, is hoped that much good will come -from them. The Ciiy Council have given permission for the construction by Mr Tannock of a model garden for educative purposes, and where competitors may receive expert aduee on gardening and kindred subjects.

The following is an exlnct front 'N.Z. Building Progress':—"The war has not. damped the ardor of town planning advocates; rather it has stimulated them'to prepare for the tirao when, the- world being free from the hampering influence of the gr-'ac struggle upon domestic development, things will fro ahead at :i fnsn pace. The town planning movement exist? to ensure that break-neck development will not bo on lines of lasting ugliness and inconvenience. The great town planning opportunity is, of course, in Belsriuin, aud the best minds of three countries aro busy on the essential preliminaries of such a reconstruction as will tax even the 'vaunted resources of modern industry and workmanship. So far as Australasia is concerned, the movement was never better organised or more alive. Tasmania now has" its Town Planning Association, and we hear from a well-informed enthusiast that a Town Planning Bill is to be taken tip by the Tasmanian Government. South Australia is prepared to legislate in tho same way. and the Roy-.! Commission on Housing, who have reported in Victoria, will do much to educate the public upon the point all lown planners should stress: that town planning will help io avoid mistakes which prove expensive 10 remedy after the population has settled in a. bi'uljy-plaimed area."

And from a later issue of the same journal: "At lea.st two of tho Australian .States are_ legislating this year on town planning, their opinion being thin this is the kind of preparatory work whicii can usefully be done whflo constructive undertakings " invo!vin<r. largo expenditure are out of the question. JJr Charles 0. Keade, who visited Xew Zealand under tho auspices of the English Garden Cities and Town Planning Association, is still in Australia engaged on the work of preparing legislative machinery to put town planning ideals into practice. The Tiismanian Government have enlisted his services in compiling a Bill to coma before an early session of 'the Tasmanian Parliament, and we 'learn from a recent communication that the vsouth Australian Government will introduce a Town Planning Bill in their Legislature early in June." "