SLUM ABOLITION

Evening Star, Issue 19197, 13 March 1926, Page 23

SLUM ABOLITION

GOVEMEHT PREPARES BILL [Pek United Phess Association.] WELLINGTON, March 12. The elimination of slum areas and the introduction of a proper system of town planning for application to the dominion as a whole are matters which the Prime Minister is very anxious to bring about at the earliest opportunity. A.s a matter of fact, the abolition of slums formed part of his policy at the General Election. Some time ago the Government set up a' committee composed of the heads of various departments, architects, surveyors, representatives of local bodies, and others interested in town planning for the purpose of bringing down a comprehensive scheme of town planning. For various reasons it has not been possible for this committee to make much progress, but Mr Coates is determined that the matter must he expedited. Accordingly, Mr R. B. Hammond (Auckland), who was the winner of the Hutt Valley town planning settlement scheme, and who has at all times taken a keen interest in the subject, has been deputed by the Government to prepare a Town Planning Bill. The Bill, when drafted, will be submitted for consideration to the committee already referred to, and will later be brought by the Minister of Internal Affairs before Cabinet for approval. The measure will bo submitted to Parliament in the course of the coming session. The Bill will be framed to meet the varying requirements of local

bodies in urban and rural areas; but, as Mr Coales explained to-day, the main purpose is to codify and put into legislative, shape the desires of all those who have been urging for some time that a broad and comprehensive Town Planning Act should be nub on the Statute Book,