A LOST OPPORTUNITY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10538, 15 March 1920, Page 4

A LOST OPPORTUNITY

MIRAMAR HOUSING SCHEME “A DEPLORABLE LACK OF FORESIGHT.” “A shame—a blunder—a lost opportunity,” said a prominent advocate of town planning to a “New Zealand Times” representative on Saturday. 'He was referring to the housing scheme now in course of development at Miramar. "Anyone who has had occasion to pass tile site at Miramar where the Government is erecting workers’ houses must, have been struck by the box-like size and appearance of the buildings,” he continued. ‘ ‘Apparently the Government's ideas of modern town planning are of the vaguest nature, for while different departments talk glibly of town planning and garden suburbs no evidence has yet been forthcoming to show that the State has any serious intentions of carrying out its housing schemes on really up-to-date lines. In this connection the Greater Wellington Town-Planning Association has entered a protest to the Prime Minister against the deplorable lack of foresight and design being shown by the Labour Department in the development of the housing scheme on the at Miramar, and urging upon.him the importance of considering such, a scheme on a broader basis, in fact from a townplanning standpoint. “,Iu the scheme under survey the greater needs of the future and the interests of the people as a whole are being subordinated to the immediate need of providing houses for people. The result of the ptbsent procedure can only be the production of another slum-like area, and the blocking of pos • sibl© future developments in that neigh bourhood. Export town planners fee that it is doubtful if ever a more favourable opportunity for the de. velopment of a boulevardio treatment of a main road possessing all the natural qualities necessary to such treatment will occur in AVellington than. was presented on Broadway. Men well qualified to judge declare that :the designs of the houses to be built are .extremely commonplace and the elevations devoid of proportion. When larger schemes —housing or anything else—nre contemplated it is important that the public and such institutions as- the town-planning and other associations should have an opportunity of seeing the plans and considering the whole proposal before actual work is commenced.

“In tbo present case it would appear to to too late to remedy a mistake that will mar for all time one of the finest stretches of residential districts-to he •found in Wellington-: I sincerely hope the evil to which I have referred will nob be extended and perpetuated.'’