PRACTICAL TOWN PLANNING.

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 9

PRACTICAL TOWN PLANNING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —During the past two years we have had numerous discussions at the meetings of the Town Planning Society re the building of dwellings on modern and np-to-date lines. The scheme adopted by the City Corporation rcilly emanated from the local society, but the originators of the. scheme would hardly recognise it since it has been altered by our town councillors. They propose building cottages and charging'from 12s 6d to £1 per week in the way of rent and also lo make tho garden-.* for tenants This method, I feel quite certain, will not work out suceessiullv wben put into practice, and is not owe that will be commended by the majority of town planners. A much better method would be for the City Corporation to borrow £IOO,OOO and lend it out at 4A per cent, in small deposits, the minimum deposit to bo £lO. That is to say, anyone with £lO could go to the corporation, buy a house with the amount, and pay the, balance oft in, say, 33J( years—earlier, of course, if the occupier "go desired. Tho length of time suggested is used by the Government, but the latter are so slow in putting their scheme into operation that most of us will be dead before anything of a really practical nature is accomplished by them. Lending the money out at 4£ per cent, would mean a slight financial loss to the corporation, but thov would reap a vast indirect benefit. A building boom would bo tho result, and the slunw of the Oity would cease to exist in the course of a very few years. The eo-oper,ation of employers of labor should be sought, in a Scheme oi this kind, and most people will agree, I am sure, that it would be a great boon to the community to have employees well housed at the lowest, possible cost. I am writing a letter to the Town Clerk on the linen suggested herein, and intend to bring this idea before the Town Planning Conference, to be held in a few months in Wellington. This idea coukl be adopted bv the leading cities in tho Dominion. £500.000 as a commencement might be invested to advantage in Auckland, Wellington. Christchurch, and Dunedin, to the everlasting benefit of tfc owners occupying these dwellings. Every year a certain amount of this money would' be paid back, which could be used to build more cottages. In the not far distant future a larga number of citizens would own their dwellings, which would be the best that modern science can devise. This would go far towards allaying tho industrial unrest that is so prevalent at the present time.—l am, etc., W. Stuart Wilson. March 8.