THE WAY OPEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26672, 19 January 1948, Page 4

THE WAY OPEN

PLANNING OF CITIES DECENTRALISATION NEEDED MR J. W. MAWSON'S VIEWS Special Correspondent , WELLINGTON, Jan. 18. Urban life as the world knew it was due to pass, said Mr J. W. Mawson, formerly Government town planning officer, and now consultant to the. Government, commenting on the likely effect of the atomic bomb on the size of cities. , For thousands of years, said Mr Mawson, cities were sited and planned for strategic purposes. From Roman times urban life had been developing, but it appeared as if the cycle had reached its peak to-day, and that general decentralisation had begun, bombs or no atom bombs. In Great Britain legislation introduced last year authorised the com struction of at least 19 new towns into which industry and population of crowded centres would be turned, i The atom bomb was only one of the new weapons which menaced large centres of population. It appealed likely that rockets with high explosive, atomic or bacterial warheads must now be considered, and the only defence against this type of weapon was dispersal of population and industiy as thinly as possible over the country s available area. ... .. It was common knowledge that tne United States Government had under consideration a plan for dispersal of key industries on a scale which staggered the imagination. It would mean virtually the end of large industrial centres as they existed to-day. Australia had set up a Cabinet committee to consider the implications of atomic warfare, and it had been stated that this might entail a complete replanning of the main Australian cities and growing industrial areas. In New Zealand, said Mr Mawson. the high degree of concentration of housing, in Auckland and Wellington particularly, seemed diametrically opposed to a decentralisation policy. Although the British Government had decided that the population of its new towns should not exceed 60,000 as making for the most efficient administrative. social, and u'anomic unit, and commending itself from the strategic point o( view, one found m New Zealand a city like Auckland, where plans were being made for a population of 750.000. This would perpetuate the mistakes of the old countries and would do the very things that were being universally condemned abroad. , New Zealand was in one way fortunately situated at the moment. The housing needs had been such that the building of industrial premises had 'not proceeded at the pace they might otherwise have done. The way was now open for the example set m older countries to be followed by the limitation of further industrial enterprises in the main centres, and possibly by the removal of certain industries from some of them. There were about a dozen secondary towns in New Zealand where industry might be built up. with such aids as preferential power and freight rates, which would put industries in secondary towns on an equal footing wun city enterprises having markets at their doors. . . „ , , The overall position in New Zealand was to-day. concluded Mr Mawson, that no great harm had been done by over-building, and the country was fortunate in that, accordingly as housin£ needs were met. it might decentralise industry to secondary towns. It would be an opportunity which could never recur. A further rush of industry to Wellington and Auckland would place the position beyond repair.