TOWN-PLANNING BOOM

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8784, 14 July 1914, Page 9

TOWN-PLANNING BOOM

FREE PUBLIC LECTURE. The visit of Mr W. R. Davidgo and Mr Charles C. Reade, the eminent British authorities on town-planning, to Wellington, is causing a considerable interest. They are to deliver her© a free public lantern lecture which will give in as graphic and lucid a manner as possible a bird’s-oye view of this very interesting topic. “It is quite a mistake,” says an authority on the subject, “to imagine that charity or other similar sentiments play any part in garden city management. The essence of the movement- consists in helping a man to help himself, helping his children, by healthy environment, social opportunity and technical training, to get as quickly as possible on to f.lio hit'll road of good citizenship.” The lecturers will be able to illustrate, this by some striking examples from the garden cities of England and Germany. Those model communities wore the forerunners of the Housing and Town-Planning Act, 1909, the measure which in Great Britain has given rise already to the preparation of over ICO municipal schemes of townplanning. These schemes ensure that tho growth of suburban districts they cover will proceed on the lines of a national and pre-arranged plan. Tho example of Germany and France also will bo shown by a magnificent series of slides and diagrams revealing tho rapid civio progress made by the towns of those countries under proper-ly-organised planning methods. Curiously enough in Germany, for instance, it is the smaller towns like Ulm, Karlsruhe and Mannheim which are among tho more progressive. Mr Reade will be able to prove that townplanning depends not upon vast numbers of people or largo municipal revenues. It is a matter of methods, economy, and skill on tho part of those in authority. Town-planning seeks to create a more orderly and scientific gro ■’ ■h of towns, instead of permitting lit hazard development under a series c» laws and by-laws which aro more or less defective.. The Mayor will preside at tho first lecture on “Town-Planning for New Zealand,” to begin in tho Town Hall to-morrow evening at 8 o’clock. Admission will be free.