TOWN GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 5

TOWN GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY.

—In your interesting statement m Saturday's issue of the methods of govern- ! merit prevailing in German cities and the office of the Oborburgermeister you mentioned Dr. Adickes and his conspicuous services to the city of Frankfort. Perhaps I may bo permitted to add a > few words concerning Dr. Adickes and his work, and if a application to our own needs. Under his • guidance Frankfort is at present engaged in, or lias just completed, the largest town-plan-ning sciiemo ever attempted as a single project. The cost to tins city is three and ahalf million pounds sterling, and, as Frankfort contained 330,000 people in 1905, this will most probably bo at a rate of over £10 per head of the present population. At the same rate Auckland would spend over a million pounds on herself! Out of tills vast sum of money Ino less than £1,200,000 is for the purchase: of land, as much as 80 por cent, of tho land affected by the proposed work being bought by tho city. • The works, are thus to bo made to benefit the whole community, and not merely the owners o£ > land. As tho scheme progresses tho land is either leased or resold on easy terms. The parts sold may bo used only for certain purposes previously agreed upon, and they may not be again disposed of by tho purchasers until tho improvements agreed upon have all been effected. Frankfort owns its own tramway system, but its Oberburgermeister is not content with that, and tho city is building its own suburban railways as well, and is, moreover, employing a special permanent way for tho purpose of greater speed. That is aitidea—extra speed on suburban —which, I fancy, would appear to our railway masters in New Zealand as somewhat quixotic. So much, you see, depends upon the point ofi view. Happily for Frankfort Dr. Adickes can tako a view which comprehends things, and is broad enough to be useful. He was tho author of the famous " Lex Adickes,at law which pointed a way through difficulties apparently insurmountable. It often happens, must happen, that whoa tho reformer comes to create beauty and health out of tins slum's ugliness and squalor, lie is confronted with tho vast cost of buying properties for making and widening streets. By tho old method the whole cost must fall on tho community, whilst the monetary gain accrues chiefly to tho owners of the land. Tho Lex Adickes offers a simpler device for avoiding the greater portion, if not all, the cost to the community, without unduly shifting tho burden on to the individual. The district to bo dealt with is taken as a whole, and replanned entirely, without regard to he ownership of tho different parts. New streets are. laid out, and open, spaces provided for, and then of, the the land remaining owners are allotted parts-which bear tho same proportion to tho now., total of land available that their original holdings bore to the old total," and then new allotments are placed as nearly as possible in the same positions as the old ones. Tho result is that each owner receives a slightly reduced! area, but, owing to the very material improvement in the surroundings his property in many cases is- worth more than it had been worth previously, and in few cases will it 1«> worth much less. We havo beyond question much to learn from Germany in tho art of civic* government, and if wo cannot; adopt, the idea of a permanent -Mayor giving ill's whole energies and time to tho office, wi» can make some, attempt to borrow of its advantages by electing mayors who aro willing to serve several terms, and encouraging them to do so. The city gained largely by Mr. A. M. .Myers's repeated elections, and it will gain by Mr. Parr's if tho electors aro astute enough to permit it. Both thesa gentlemen have, in common with tho Frankfort Oborburgermeister; a fine civic vision, and it would not be impossible to name others in our midst eligible for the office who are no less gifted. Thus wo liavo the mem both capable and willing to make our cities all that we should like them to be. If wo could give them tho power they- would achieve many things for us. This out? system, and possibly our temperament, forbid, but they do not forbid that we should mako a generous and sympathetic uso of their 'help and guidance in doing tho same things for ourselves. J. G. Haddow. ' iNQTTiTtER.— child bora of English parents on board a French vessel in midocean retains the nationality of its parents.