THE TOWN-PLANNING BOOM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12285, 11 July 1914, Page 1

THE TOWN-PLANNING BOOM.

FREE PUBLIC LECTURE. The forthcoming visit,.of Mr- Charles C. Reade, the organiser of the Australasian town-planning tour, to Oamaru, ou Friday next, is causing a considerable interest. lie is to deliver here a free public lantern, lecture, which will give in as graphic and lucid a- maimer as possible a. bird's-eye 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 iu Garden City management. Hie essence of the movement consists 111 helping a. man to help himself, helping his children by healthy environment, social opportunity r and technical training, to get as quickly as possible on to the high road of good citizenship." Mr Keade- will lie able to illustrate this by some striking examples from the garden cities of England and Germany. These model communities were the foreruuuers of the Housing a flu Town-i'lanuing Act. 1901) —the measure which i,u Great Britain has given nso already to the- preparation of over 150 municipal schemes ol lown-plauuiug. These schemes ensure that the growtn of suburban districts they cover 'will proceed ou the lines of a national, and pre-arranged plan. The example of Germany and France also will bo shown by amgnilicent series of slides and- diagrams reevaling the rapid civil progress- made by the towns of. these countries under properly-organised planning methods. Curiously enough in. Germanv, for instance, it is the smaller towns like Uim. Karlsruhe, and Mannheim which are among the more progressive. Mr Read'e will be able t-c prove that town-planning depends not upon vast numbers of people or large municipal revenues. It is a matter of methods, economy, and skill on the part of those in authority. Town-plaii-ning seeks to create a, more 'orderly and scientific growth of towns instead of permitting haphazard development under a'series of laws and by-laws which arc more'or less detective. His Worship the Mayor will preside ab the lecture ("The Message of Garden Cities and Town-Planning") in the Municipal Opera House on Friday next (July mh). . '