THE MAYOR'S HOLIDAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 9

THE MAYOR'S HOLIDAY

MR. PARR IN MELBOURNE.

COMPARISONS OF CITIES.

AUCKLAND'S NEEDS.

[from orn owv

Sydney, Jane 20. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr. C. J. Parr), who will leave by the Manuka on Wednesday on his return to New Zealand, has a number of schemes in view for the improvement of the municipal rarvices of tho " Queen City," and has indicated tho nature of some of thorn.

"I have been greatly impressed with Melbourne, which I visited mainly for tho purpose of investigating various phases of municipal activity," Mr. Parr told the representative of tho Nbw Zealand Hlrald yesterday. " Melbourne has a population of 628,000, as against Sydney s 750,000. There is as much difference between Melbourne and Sydney as there is between Auckland and Dunedin. In Sydney everything is progressing, development and growth are tho order of the day, while in Melbourne things are,quieter, though very etablo and sound. In gan'ril terms, Sydney is a pleasure-loving city; Melbourne is staid and respectable. Thsri is immense woalth concentrated iD Melbourne. Money is plentiful. First mortgage lenders are glad to get 4£ per cent., the lowest rate in tho colonies. The City of Melbourne loan of £300,000 at 4$ per cent, at par was locally subscribed in a day while I was there.

City Beautiflcation. "Just as'the public architecture of Dunedin is much superior to that of the Northern capital, bo Collins Streeta mile and a-quartor long and 100 ft wide— its many noble buildings, has no poor in architectural beauty and alignment in Australasia. A great need in each of the four centres of New Zealand is an official, called here the city architect, who shall exercise control in our fine streets over WW class and stylo of buildings to bo erected. We pass buildings in New Zealand nowadays simply because they comply with the by-laws as regards thickness of wails and fire escapes, and often they-are simply four square walla of bricks and mortar without any pretence to architectural dignity and sotting. When one good building is put up in a street liko yueen Street wo owe a duty to the man who built it and to the city to see that its neighbour is not mean, ugly and inadequate. Nothing detracts so much from the appearance of a street as too great a disparity in the heights of adjacent buildings. We should aim at securing unity of purpose and harmony of design in our architecture. This applies to all tho New ! Zealand cities, but more particularly tc | Auckland, where we have, I am afraid, I been very lax in this regard. A man hat I no right to prejudice his neighbour and s whole street by the erection of an un sightly and unsuitable building. Town-Planning. " In order to ensure the development o oar cities and suburbs on harmonious lin« It is desirable that more control shoult be exercised by the governing authorities Onlv in this way can a homogeneous de sign be prepared. The central municipa authority would lay out parks and square! and determine the direction and width o 6treets the number of houses per acre and, to a certain extent, the height ant class of buildings to bo erected. Had thi principle been acted* upon Auckland which is one of the finest sites in th world for a city, would never have beei disfitrured as it has been. I had a tall on this subject with Mr. W. B. Griffin, th Chicaso arch iter!., who is planning th Federal capital. He passed through Aucl I land recently on his way from Americ j to Australia, and noticed the position c J Orakei and expressed the opinion that i 1 r would be little less than a crime if thi : fine block, at the very gateway of the cit; ' waa allowed to be cut up and subdivide on the uely orthodox lines adopted by th 1 private syndicate and the suburban roa ' board. It could, he considered, bemad I i ono of the most beautiful spots south ( 'jthe'line by judicious treatment in accorc > aDco with modern ideas. Mr. Griffin, f I a result of his travels in Europe, and h: 1 experience in America, is an enthusiast! " ! advocate of the proper planning on iciei 3 1 tific principles of the suburban areas. E ' thinks it would pay our city raun ' ' cipalities handsomely to become lip II owners on a large scale by acquiring sul 8 ■ urban areas, so as to ensure erection < 1 1 suburbs that will be pleasant to live i ' j and convenient of access, instead of lea" i in e this important work to private synd cates or road boards. Native Trees. "Mr. Griffin told me that when passii I through Auckland ho noticed with regr the absence of the beautiful trees and shrul that he saw when he went into the bus He thought that our Idea of a bush pai at Titirangi was an excellent one. b strongly advised me to have more of 0' indigenous flora in the city parks, and , entirelv agree with his view that \ h should aim at making our parks distm tiveb' New Zealand in character and n a poor reproductions of Old Country pari >• Thus he suggests that we should su A stitnte for some of the imported trees, sa f th® totara, rata, rimu, and puriri, ai grow them in profusion. I believe " deciduous trees for the streets, 60 as h let in li"ht and air, but in the parks let jo have more of tho trees and shrubs fee ie our own bush, which is, perhaps, t ie most glorious in the world.

Street Construction. j' " From a municipal point of view Mel-1 bourne is undoubtedly a very fine city. No other city in Australasia possesses such wide, well-made street?, and no other centre approaches it in street cleanli- \ ness and sanitation. The suburban muni- j cipalities afford an object-lesson m these ( lespects, too. In the suburbs of Sydney the roads are atrocious in comparison with those of such places aa Prahran, St Kilda, j Kew, and Brighton. I came away from j Melbourne humble in spirit, feeling that i we in Auckland had much to learn. The system of woo-l-blocking in th* Victorian capital is perfect. Neuchatel asphalt is; being given a trial in some streets with | good (Suits, but I notice that Mr. Mountain, the experienced city engineer, is "now trying a new material called gilsonite, a bituminous asphalt, ihat is, I understand, being very largely used in the United States. It ran be laid on an ordinary macadam surface, without any special foundation, at 7s 6d per yard, the annual; maintenance cost being no more than 3d , per \ard. I am of opinion that gilsonite ' would do extremely well for some of our j own streets where the grade is too steep i fnT Neuchatel asphalt, and prove prefer I able to the tarred macadam we are using j in Auckland. The Melbourne authorities J are also experimenting with westrumite, , which was recently under offer to the I Auckland City Council, but I was not much taken with tho result, gilsonite seeming; to me to be a much better proposition. The matter of finding a fairly cheap material for steep grades is all important for Auckland at the present time. Hence the keen interest I have token in investigating tile subject. Melbourne is not afraid of making experiments. Indeed, it is a school of experiments in -making, and it is there rather than m Sidney that we shall learn lessons worth while. Municipal Markets. " I was greatly interested in the Melbourne markets, and, in' order to see how the svstem actually works, I paid a visit to them at five o'clock in the morning 'n company with the town clerk of Melbourne (Mr. Clayton). The Melbourne markets are a success. They'have solved the problem there of bringing the vegetable gardener and the fruitgrower into direct contact and bargaining, with

the purchaser, instead of through an agent- Over 600 gardeners* and Orchardista* carts were at the markets the morning I waa there, some coming -n from as far as 20 miles There were as many, and more, fruiterers* and vegetable dealers' carts all around the Market Square; and the scene was a most animated one- It was very interesting to watch and see the bargaining going on between the growers and the dealers. Most of the latter had completed their buying by eight o'clock, and then the very small purchasers and i housewives came along and bargained for the various lines that the growers still had on their hands. One main reason of the success of the Melbourne mar- ' kets is that the land upon which they ] stand cost the municipality mt'.ing, being ( Crown grant, whereas the new and , commodious municipal markets in Sydney are erected upon land that had to be specially resumed by the council at no , less thin £300,000, which means a very big annual charge for interest and sinking fund. The municipal market question is an exceedingly involved and difficult one, and we shall have to be careful how we go about matters in Auckland to avoid landing the ratepayers in a loss. Wo havo to pay £2000 a year to the Harbour Board for two acres of land, and my opinion is that we will need to reconsider our plans. This, however, is a subject upon which we should take the best expert advice, and 1 shall have something to propose in that direction upon my return. Traffic Congestion. " The condition of the streets of Melbourne reflects great credit on the authorities there. They are kept in much better condition than the streets of Sydney, but one must recollect, when making comparisons, that Melbourne is in rcalitv an , inland city, whilo Sydney lies right on the waterfront, and, consequently, all tho traffic to and from the wharves passes ' through it. The traffic along tho Sydi pay streets is probably as heavy and con- ' gostcd a 8 in any city in the world. Some . r of the streets are at the busiest timos i abnolutely choked. I did not see any greater congestion in London even. The topography of Sydney and Auckland are very similar, and we shall have to look to the future and try to avoid the dim- ' cullies with which the Australian city is 3 now confronted. In tho light of Sydnoy a 3 experiences the new Jermyn Street outlet i in Auckland will, I feel sure, be regarded in years to come as the finest thing the Auckland City Council has done a S> a l " means of relief for the foreshore traffic.