TOWN PLANNING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 June 1924, Page 8

TOWN PLANNING.

HOUSING, NOT HERDING. INDIVIDUALISING THE HOME. LONDON, May fi. Mr. Wheatley, Minister of Health, attended the opening of the conference which is being held in connection with the' Town Planning Exhibition at Wembley. The exhibition, which has been organised by the Town Planning Institute, includes models and plans of regions and towns in the Dominions and 'of the development of areas in Great Britain, including large industrial centres. There are' nine sections arranged in the' Palace of Arts illustrating the methods of town planning that ai]e engaging attention in different parts of the Empire. Old and modern forms of building construction

are contrasted, and prominent among J the models is one of the new group of j Government buildings at Delhi. | Mr. Wheatley said there were prob- j ably few questions of greater import- 1 ance than the proper control of urban ! development. He' was rather surprised by the percentage of population in variious parts of the Empire who lived under urban conditions. He was not surprised that 80 per cent, of the popu-1 lotion of Great Britain lived in urban , districts, but when he found that 601 per cent, of the white population of ( South Africa, and nearly 50 per cent. I of the population of Canada lived under j urban conditions, the figures gave him a certain amount of surprise, if not of amazement. The value of a town planI ning conference was, he thought, best • appreciated if they bore in mind that

• town planning was not a set of settled ' principles to be rigidly applied, but was something which grew, and must 1 continue to grow, according to their i requirements and the nature' of the i problems which would present them- > selves from year to year. New prob--31 lems were continually arising, and | therefore it was of great advantage to

have an exhibition of the plans which had been prepared by various authorities within the British Commonwealth. The subject was also interesting to the average citizen. A comparison between the civic administration of today and that of 25 years ago would show not merely the progress made in dealing with the questions which they then regarded as connected with local government, but -also the enormous and constant additions that were being made to the work which came under the supervision of local bodies. Town planning was undoubtedly one of the subjects in which it would be of tremendous value to have the citizens not merely interested, but highly educated, because by the side of this expansion in civic duties and administration there was a very rapid change in the class of people who controlled the local government of the country. it was therefore of national importance that the average citizen should be imbued with the highest possible civic spirit, in order that he might assume his proper control over the administration of the locality of which he was a member.

He impressed on the representatives of local authorities the need for harmonious co-operation with neighbouring authorities in this work. A large outlook and a readiness even to- sacrifice local interests to the general plan were: essential if town, planning was to make the desired progress. If they had not learnt to think in continents, j they had learnt to think in counties. and that was a step in the right- direc- ! tion. Taking the larger outlook, in which the exhibition was calculated to educate them, they hoped to be able to approach the question not merely in a spirit of town planning, but, in the years that were not- far ahead, also in the spirit of national and indeed of Empire planning. Sir Joseph Cook, who presided, said he thought the British Empire Exhibition made it clear that the whole sciehee of town planning was, in its essence, a- demo-erMic idea and grew out of their own environment. In the Dominions they had a better chance, so far ns town planning w-as concerned, than in this country, where so much demolition had to be done, before they ' could begin constructive work. In Australia they believed in individualising; the home, and there was a rooted idea that the house must be either detached or semi-detached. If in this country they could individualise a little more in making the homes of the workers lie believed it would have farreaching effects on the character of the people. Whatever -else housing meant, it should not mean herding. The town planner was a missionary of sunlight, fresh air. and clean living. (Cheers!)