NEW FEDERAL CAPITAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19397, 4 August 1926, Page 14

NEW FEDERAL CAPITAL.

THE PROGRESS OF CANBERRA " ENORMOUS WASTE OF MONEY." VIEWS OF A NEW ZEALANDER. Some interesting remarks on the construction of Australia's future capital, Canberra, were made by Mr. E. Earle Yaile, who has just returned to New Zealand after a tour through several of the Australian States. " There are no architectural pretensions about any of tho buildings so far erected," said Mr. Vaile, "and as far as I could see, the town planning of tho hew city seems almost to have defeated its own ends. I gathered that the construction of Canberra is viewed throughout Australia as an enormous waste of money." The site of the future capital was, said Mr.. Vaile, a good piece oi rolling country with plenty of land available for building. An area of about 12 square miles had been set aside for building, but the total extent of the territory was about 70 square miles. The building area was situated in a saucer-shaped hollow and consequently had very little outlook. The climate was cool and invigorating, the average elevation above sea-level being 1900 ft. " Parliament Buildings. " The laying out of the buildings seems to me to bo nothing short of ridiculous," continued Mr. Vaile. "The Parliament building has been placed in the centre. It is a very large, extremely plain build-' ing and is said to bo a temporary construction. However, it is expected that it will have to last for 50 years. Both chambers are very small, and, I should Say, would not be able to accommodate all the members. However, they may have been built on the same principle as the English Houses of Parliament, which were built with the understanding that all the members would never attend at the same time.

"The Government offices are about a mile away, and there is nothing but open country between. Separating these two buildings by such a tract of country iseems absolutely absurd." The business area, continued Mr. Vaile, appeared to be restricted. There were 20 to 30 shops, all built in brick and mostly, single-storey structures. All were extremely plain. There were three hotels and a fourth was being constructed. The chief one, the Hotel Canberra, was a fine building, but an cxpensivo one. Grouping of Residences. The residential areas were placed in a most curious manner. There were about four separate groups of 50 to 100 houses, cut off from one another, by one to two miles of open country. A resident •would have to keep a motor-car to go from one group .to one of tho more distant ones. The houses seemed to be for people with varying incomes. The highsalaried civil servants would live in one group, and those with low salaries ,in another. The whole thing seemed most artificial. Civil servants were complaining bitterly at having to leave the comfortable social life of Melbourne for isolation in the new capital, he said. Furthermore, there was considerable dissatisfaction with the rents which the Government intended to charge for houses at Canberra. They would be about .50 per cent, in excess of the rents being paid in Melbourne. " With the exception of a few narrowminded people in Sydney," added Mr. Vaile, in conclusion, " most • Australians admit that it would have been better to keep the capital at Melbourne. It does not seem as if Canberra will fulfil expectations." ' •