TOWN PLANNING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 25 January 1911, Page 3

TOWN PLANNING.

SPEECH BY MR, GEORGE FOWLDS.

Entertained a,t Auckland on his i*e> •turn from South Africa, the Hon. George F.owlds in the course of a speech remarked : —"I should be more (or less) than hiunan were I not extremely gratied with the reception you, ha.ve given me to-day on my return from .South Africa, where I had the honour to represent New Zealand at a great epochmaking event in the history of our \ Empire. I have been received and feted a>t many placets by many people since I left these shores four months •ago. This I have accepted as ia compliment paid to New Zealand. I have also .had many expressions of opinions sent t(0 me that the visit of the Hon. Mr Fisher and myself to South Africa has done good in that, country. But to receive a welcome from my fellowcitizens on my return is not the least pleasant feature of a very pleasant and interesting mission." Mr. Fowlds went on to maSke an acknowledgement of the kindness he had received not only in South Afirica, but also from' the Federal and State Governments in Australia. He referred at length to the friendly, attitude of public men in the Commonwealth towards New .Zealand., and to the good that would be accomplished by the more frequent meeting of public men from the outlying .portions of the Empire and the Mother Country. MAORI MANUSCRIPTS. "One part of jny mission to South Africa was of special interest to Auckland." said Mr Fowlds. "I refer to my negotiations regarding the Maori mamu,scnptls in the Grey collection of the Capetown Public Library. The Pirime Minister desired me to go into the matter -with the authorities there, with the object of haiving them returned to their natural home in New Zealand. Before leaving Auckland-1 got from the Mayor a il-btVf South African manuscripts in the orey collection of the Auckland Public Library. I did this because I knew from an interview I had with the authorities in Capetown when .passing through there to the Old Country five years ago that the only way in wliich • those valuable documents could be obtained for this Dominion was- on the basis of an exchange o'f the South African, portion of the Grey collection in Audkland. On my previous visit I found the library authorities: were quite in fa/vour of ma'king the exchange, /but were of opinion thai legislative authority was required to- efnaible.themi to act. Since then the trustees had a bill presented to the Caoe Parliament dealing with the matter, which, though it pas> ed the Assembly, was rejected b~ the Legislative Council. On my recent visit I interviewed the trustees, and found that they were still of the saone ,mind, but they were faced with the same diffU culty. I also talked the matter over with several of the Ministers, and with other leading' members of Parliament, and I expect that another bill will be promoted at an early date, which I hope may be passed. None of these I •conferred with seemed to be aware of the fact that Sir George Grey in one of his books had expressed the hope that such exchange would take place until each library possessed, the books and manuscripts of the greatest local value and interest." GET BUSY.

Mr. Fowlds went on to speak of the value- that such a respite-as he had from the constant strain of Ministerial duties had had, not only in improving his he a lth. but in giving him time for study and' reflection. One of the results was had a. message to the- people,-of Auckland generally, and indeed to the •peo-ple iof - all- .the : larger. fc towns and cJtieß of New Zealand —a- message buiming liot from the plains of Africa, and that message was :"Get busy on the question of town planning'and thevprovision of. adequate parks and recreation •grounds for . the city that is to he. "When I arrived in. Auckland, over lo years ago," said the speaker, ''peop.o impressed on me bow wonderfully well the city was supplied with <nublic parks, and when I visited our beautiful domain, Albert Park, and Western Park, I accepted the impression as a true one, for it was true that for a city and suburbs of some 700 inhabitant Auckland was moderately \well supplied with parks. - To-dav, however, you have an -Auckland with a population of well ovei--100,000. And what of to-morrow? I am of the opinion that before some of the voung children living/ in Auckland co-day shall' have left school the city s population will be a quarter of a "million, and that many of them wi.ll live to see it over half a million. I have no hesitation in saying that even for the •present population the. provision of open spaces parks, and recreation is totally inadequate, arid I almost shudder when' I think of what the position wall be 10 or 15 years hence, when the,present population will have doubled or more than doubled itself. DIFFERENT CONDITIONS.

We have to recognise that the conditions of our Dominion cities are entirely different from those of growing cities in the Old Land. There you have in most cases old families holding considerable estates all around the cities. It is true that in most cases they do untold harm to the cities by holding .back their estates for settlement until the prices become exorbitant, but they give this decided advantage, that open land _ 15 available for purchase by the cities for Dark land before it is connplicated .by being roaded and built upon. In some oases owners themselves provide open spaces when cutting up the land, ihin* of the enormous tracts of suburban land bein 9 cut up, first into fiveorten acre lots, and then being sub-divided into six or eight allotments to the acie without an inch of open space being provided for the children to play on except the streets. To meat appears positively appalling when I think of the fu ture The Right Hon. John Burns has done a great deal to wke the question of town (planning a live one m Great Britain, and- the whole Question is bein- considered scientifically all oyer the world. A chair of town planning has been established in the P°<JJj™versitv and a very valuable maga-zine, "The Town Planning Review, - is being published regularly, and ought to be in the hands of every city councillor throughout the English-speaking >vorld I quite recognise that legislation will be required to get these matters deal* to*V adequately and comprehensively and 1 promise you that I will i do all m my power to persuade my colleagues to facilitate such legislation.