Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY. JULY 24, 1928. THE PROBLEM OF THE MODERN CITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16705, 24 July 1928, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY. JULY 24, 1928. THE PROBLEM OF THE MODERN CITY

There is a peculiar draw about the city. In it centre the highest capacities of man. To the city come all the adventurous. The professional man, anxious for fame and opportunity for the highest service makes for the citvv All caterers for tlve amusement of the public shadow (he city. The trader, the merchant, the banker live by the city. Even those who live in the country and have their homes there; who love the country and its everehanging life and beauty an<l«who would not voluntarily part with it for all the gold of Ophir, ibid their way to the city. It may be that, to many, the lure of the city, as that of the moth {o the candle, results in burnt wings. " The city takes no note of its slain: they are swept out of sight and forgotten. The city remains; the candle burns on. It has to be admitted that the city, as servant of the country, is indispensable. When the city becomes, by usurpation, the master of the country, there is danger. The ruins of many an ancient Pctra testify to the arrogance of cities, bused upon self-sufficiency, which forgot the source of their power and fell with the peoples which their rulers had betrayed. It is true that the great cities of past nges were built by slave labor, and, that the interests of those slavebuilders counted as mere., dust in the balance in the counsels of the cities. While that has to be remembered, yet, in many ways, the same dangers attend upon the progress of modem cities as those which proved fatal to many a fallen Babylon. America's rapid growth to a position of supremacy among the nations of the worjd is one of the wonders of the world. To-day when the brilliance of her statesmen has succeeded in bridling the passions for war, so that thirteen nations already are prepared to sign at, Paris a mutual renunciation of war except for self-defence, the power of America is still more clearly made manifest. Versailles will be a fitting shrine for the signature of the greatest agreement, between nations ever signed, and which is the consummation of the great treaty of June 28, 1918, which still bears its name.

But, behind all the glamor of this groat diplomatic triumph, lurks, oyer, the shadow or the danger of the groat cities. Will America bo groat enough to curb, the surging evils of these cities, so beautiful on their faces, but behind, to so great an extent, like all modem cities, soothing with hidden crime, poverty and misery. Can she reconcile her unrivalled wealth with the corruption, too often manifest in high places, and the crime and misery, past concealment, in the lowest. A cure for the cancerous growths of the big city is long overdue. But it would be idle* to attempt to gloss over iho worst of our Empire municipal conditions by pointing to the defects of other nations. America stands out perhaps as greatest in her contrasts of wealth and poverty, but she shares equally with other nations in having found no way of preventing city congestions of crime and misery. All It'ew Zonlandors are proud of London, the greatest city in the world, with over seven millions and a half of population. New York is catching up with over six millions of inhabitants. We read of the historic features of London; her wonderful cathedrals; her art treasures; the evidences in banks and exchanges, of all kinds, of her great wealth; her industries and her shipping, and we are justly proud of such greatness and claim, ns members of the Empire and family, to our share in it, even though we claim a reflected glory only. ■ But what about her slums, her East • End, the crowded masses born in wretchedness and misery, the small percentage of

whom, reclaimed by; philanthropic effott, drift away, leaving gaps" to be again filled up by the rapid accretions of thc-unftt.- AVe-are not so-proud of this"side of the picture: we make no claim to share iff it. Quite correctly, we. deny responsibility. But "the problems of London are the problems of Sydney and of Melbourne. If not quite so pressing upon public attention, they are the problems of New Zealand's four principal cities. There seems to be in modern civilisation a drift downwards. If this be permanent, and there is no remedy, it is a tragic, ending of the dogma of the survival of the fittest. Life rather fails in its sanctity if it consists of sue-: cess which necessarily condemns those who fall out by the way, to a condition, in which life and reproduction become not only a greater burden, but a menace to the State. This problem has been exercising Mr. Bernard Shaw, who has written a book advocating equality of incomes. He states that this book has cost him the value of three and a half of plays which he might have written. We have not seen the book so are quite unable to offer an opinion upon it. A not too friendly critic, suggests that unity who have read it would rather have had the plays. However this may be, it is noteworthy that the evils of the great city are so pressing upon the conscience of the ablest men in public life that we find statesmen like Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Chamberlain almost admitting defeat in their efforts, by all sorts of projects, to stem the evil of masses of people being bred in tenements and dragging themselves up, under conditions, which are a disgrace to our common humanity. In New Zealand, judging by some of the statistics given by the Minister of Health in his introduction of the Government, proposals to deal with the mentally unfit, there are too evident signs that all is not well with our city life. 'We are forced to look at our own sores, such as they are, and reserve our comments upon those of our neighbors, except, in so far, as they ser\e as an example for our warning. But the problem is how the evil of the congested city is to be stayed. How is it that cities do grow? What artificial virus can be found to stay the draw of the big city upon the average workers in the country? If facts could be collated from the land registries of the Dominion it would probably be found that the great extension of the four cities has been caused by persons speculating in lands considerably beyond the range of practical city use, at the time, offering the hula's later, so acquired, in sections at, tempting rates. The speculator then retires from the mirror, leaving the public to supply water and drainage to a district that should never have been in the city bounds at all. It seems hard to say that men using their brains in fortelling what will happen, if they can control the position, and so accumulate money without actual labor at the expense of the public, should not bo allowed to do so. But in this the border line seems to be reached. A speculator in any commodity, whether it be hnd or sugar, is entitled to all the profit he can make so long as, in his venture and as a consequence of (hat venture, he does not injure his neighbor. The speculator in town lands does injure his neighbor if his operations really account for the misery of the congested city. Proof, upon full inquiry, is requisite. If such proof is forthcoming, speculation in suburban lands should be discountenanced, either by total suppression, or by prohibitory taxation. All reforms dealing with the evils caused by the growth of cities are to be welcomed, but it would be more useful to cut /at the roots. It is better to prevent the growth of slum conditions, than, after such conditions are established, laboriously and at great expense to ileal with the difficulties which have been created. In dealing, seventeen years ago, with the question of the unhealthy growth of London Mr. A. If. Wallace claimed the aid of Parliament to repress its continuance. He called the great cities the '' wens'' and '' the disease-pro-ducts" of the community. He thought Parliament could justly say to any growing town or city, "When you have not a gallon of polluted water in your town, and when its death-rate is brought down to the average standard of rural areas, we will reconsider the question of your further growth." Originally man was wholly occupied with sustaining life through his use of the soil. The city was an artificial product which relieved his labors by reasonable relaxation. When the city becomes out- of proportion to the rural districts which its industries serve an element of danger comes in. At the present time the secondary interests of the Dominion are not strong enough to support the fast-accruing city populations by finding full employment for them in remunerative labor. So long as this state of things obtains there must be unemployment and serious risk of growing slum conditions. We have travelled far from the prophet-poet's vision of a city, foursquare, an emblem of perfection and of hope for the whole human race.