TOWN PLANNING

Evening Star, Issue 23725, 5 November 1940, Page 3

TOWN PLANNING

ADAPTATION—NOT CHANGE WISE RESTRICTIONS BENEFICIAL “ Now is the time that all local governing bodies should be planning ahead and deciding upon major' works to bo put in hand if and when serious unemployment occurs after the strain of war, 11 said Mr M. G. C. M‘Caul at the twelfth annual meeting at Wellington of the Town Planning Institute of New Zealand. The chief call for the application of town planning principles to-day, he said, was not in the planning of new towns, but in the adaptation of existing towns to now requirements and so planning their development that the needs of the future could be provided for when required without the necessity for costly reconstruction. " A town has been aptly described as a todl, and the first duty of the city rulersis to so plan that the city they govern shall fulfil is function. Lack of order, convenience, and beauty offends us and makes for inefficiency in a. city the same as it does in a workshop. By so that industrialists may have every facility and convenience without injuring the property values or amenities of other property owners and by enforcing control over general design, order can be evolved out of chaos in course of time and a general impression of harmony and beauty created,” he continued. 4< Take as an example our city streets. If we decide now how we desire a certain important thoroughfare to appear in 50 years* time, we can achieve oiir objective at a reasonable cost by applying certain restrictions upon the position and design of all new buildings. Let us aim at a city beautiful as well as a city useful. If we consider some of the famous thoroughfares of the world we will find that sometimes the buildings that flank it, at others the vista, or both, combine to inspire the sightseer with a sense of nobility and grandeur. No building should be erected in ar' important thoroughfare that docs not fib in with sonic general plan to make that tlioroughfare a noble one in course of time. The ultimate benefit of town planning would not depend so much upon laws as upon the wisdom nml foresight of our municipalities and their sincere desire to

promote the health and happiness of the people in their care. For the efforts of local governing bodies in this direction to be fully effective, it was requisite that they have the support of all individuals—properly owners and citizens —and it was one of the duties of the Town Planning Institute to educate, both by disseminating knowledge of the wastage and immense cost in money and health of a laissez-faire policy in the development of our cities, and the great savings in money and benefit to the health and happiness of the people to be gained by the adoption of far-seeing, long-range plans. These should take into account the future needs of industry and transport, reservation of the most suitable sites for future factories, and the planning of sites in relation to the places of residence and recreation of the employees. Wholesome housing conditions and pleasant surroundings for dwellings exerted an incalculable influence upon the character of a people and helped to build up a powerful force in civic pride that in its turn reacted again to the benefit of the city in a thousand ways. This was a period of great changes—for good or for ill, we knew not—but if we took thought for the future and endeavoured to influence the changes as the came, they were more likely to be for our betterment than for our ill.