RE-MAKING SYDNEY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 105, 3 April 1926, Page 14

RE-MAKING SYDNEY.

MISTAKES OF EARLY DAYS. THE WORK OF RECTIFICATION. SYDNEY, March 19. Every Sydney resilient is justinably proud of lus city, but even tne most fanatic will admit that it has its faults, it is small consolation to linn that these are mostly the work of his own hand, it is becoming almost hackneyed to say that Uod made toydney beautiful, and man opoilt it. Almost every visitor has something to remark about our narrow streets, or sireots that lead to nowhere, or %igly buildings that cluster tho ioro'dioio of the beautilul haiLour. The cables informed us tins week, for instance, ot iVLiss Irene Vanbrugh, the eminent English actress, telling a gathering of London journal ists that Sydney had beet, spoilt by the liandiwcrk of man. It takes a morally courageous Sydney resident to believe it, but nevertheless there is much truth m it. . . , To a great extent, our municipal bodies are attempting to remedy the mistakes of great-grandfathers with the right hand, as it were, and are doing the same things as they did with their left hand. Hundreds ot thousands of pounds of ratepayers’ money are being spent in straightening crooked streets, or prolonging them, or widening them, while no attempt is being made to prevent the haphazard erection of ugly buildings, such as flats, especially on the harbourside. The iemark is often heard, especially in these days of the universal motor-ear, that the early builders of Sydney made a great mistake in not reserving a width of territory right round the harbour foreshore for a marine drive. It would be a great attraction now, but the chances of having it are gone forever, because it would tako untold millions to uproot the private ownership of the greater part of the foreshore. It is only a few years since the Sydney City Council began a definite scheme of correcting the mistakes of the early planners of Sydney, but up to the end of 1924 approximately £3,400,000 had been spent in the resumption of properties alone. Only a fringe of the necessary work has been touched, and a half-century hence, not only will the whole face of the city have been altered, but an enormous! sum of money w'ill have been spent, when, with earlier foresight, much of it could have been saved. The charm of narrow, winding streets is not fashionable among present-day civic legislators, whose cry is “More elbowroom." ,Sydney certainly needs more elbow room in her streets, and although the pace might be a little fast for the liking of ratepayers, the eventual gain will be to the city.