TOWN-PLANNING BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19275, 13 March 1926, Page 10

TOWN-PLANNING BILL.

PRIME MINISTER'S RESOLVE. MEASURE FOR NEXT SESSION. ENTRUSTED TO MR. HAMMOND. [by telegraph.—own correspondent. ] WELLINGTON. Friday. The elimination of slum areas and the introduction of a proper system of town planning for application to the Dominion as a whole are matters which the Prime Minister is very anxious to bring about at the earliest opportunity. As a matter of fact, the abolition of slums formed part of his policy at the general election. Some time ago the Government set up a committee, composed of heads of various departments, architects, surveyors, representatives of local bodies and others interested in town planning, for the purpose of bringing down a comprehensive scheme of town planning, For various reasons it has not been possible for this committee to make much progress, but Mr. Coates has determined that the matter must be expedited. Accordingly, Mr. It. B. Hammond, of Auckland, who was the winner of the Orakei and Hutt- Valley town planning settlement schemes, and who has at all times taken a keen interest in the subject, has been deputed by the Government to prepare a Town Planning Bill. The bill, when drafted, will be submitted for consideration to the committee already referred to, and will later be brought by the Minister of Internal Affairs before Cabinet for approval. The measure will be submitted to Parliament in the course of the coming session. The bill will be framed to meet the varying requirements of local bodies in urban and rural areas but, as Mr. Coates explained to-day, its main purpose is to codify and put into legislative shape the desires of all those who have been urging for some time that a broad and comprehensive Town Planning Act should be put on the Statute Book.