TO MAKE OR MAR?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8783, 13 July 1914, Page 4

TO MAKE OR MAR?

TOWNS OF THC FUTURE,

Soon the people of Wellington will have an exceptional opportunity of "oceiving much good information as to other countries’ methods of planning or improving their towns. Messrs W. It. Davidge and Charles O. Reade, ouvpys of the Garden Cities and Town-planning Association of Great Britain, are tireless students and observers, and they have a helpful massage for the public of New Zealand, i notion is current that town-plan-ning or town-improvement is merely a passing craze, the temporary hobby of a few zealous faddists. The truth has been told well by Mr J, D. Fitzgerald, chairman of the New South Wales Housing Board, and vice-presi-dent o'f the Town-planning Association of New South Wales, thus: '“The city planners of the day,” he wrote, “are not mere dreamers or enthusiasts. They are generally men of professional training, who have a salt of enthusiasm and of huinanitarianism added to the elements in their sompositidn. A great number of trades , and professions are confluent at thepoin t where town-planning, in its modern aspect, begins—the architect, the artist, the surveyor, engineer, builder, artisan and craftsman, the business man, land expert and house agent, the municipal expert, the lawyer, the sociologist, the semtarian, the landscape gardener, and the eugenist.” The first lecture, “Town-planning for New Zealand,” in Wellington will he given by Mr W. R. Davidge and Mr Reade in the Town Hall on Wednesday evening, 15th inst., at 8 o’clock, when the Mayor (Mr J. P. Luke) will preside. There is no charge for admission.