TOWN-PLANNING BILL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19737, 13 March 1926, Page 6

TOWN-PLANNING BILL.

A COMPREHENSIVE SCHEME ABOLITION OF SLUMS. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 12. The elimination of slum areas and the introduction of a proper system of town planning foi application to the Dominion as a whole are matters which the Prime Minister is vei’y anxious to bring about at the earliest opportunity. As a matter of fact, the abolition of slums formed part of his policy at the general election. Seme time ago the Government sot up a committee composed of the .leads of various departments, architects, surveyors, rep’esentatives of local bodies, and others interested in town planning for the purpose of bringing down a comprehensive scheme of town planning. For various reasons, it has not been possible for this committee to make much progress, but Mr Coates is determined that the matter must be expedited. Accordingly, Mr R. B. Hammond (Auckland), who was the winner of the llutt Valley town planning settlement scheme, and who has at all times taken a keen interest in the subject, has been deputed by the Government to prepare a Town Planning Bill. The Bill, when drafted, will he submitted for consideration to the committee already referred to. and will later be brought by the Minister of Internal Affairs before Cabinet for approval. The measure will be submitted to Parliament in the course of the coming session. The Bill will be framed to meet the varying requirements of local bodies in urban and rural areas, but, as Mr Contes explained to-day, the main purpose is to codify and put into legislative shape the desires of all those who have been urging for some time that a broad and comprehensive Town Planning Act should be put on the Statute Book.