TOWN PLANNING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 858, 30 December 1929, Page 14

TOWN PLANNING

IDEAS ABOUT AMERICA AUSTRALIAN EXPERT ABROAD A world tour in the interests of town-planning has just" been completed by Mr. Harold Boas, an architect of Perth, West Australia, who is

returning by the Aorangi. He is chairman of the Metropolitan Town-Planning Commission of West Australia, and has been investigating town-planning abroad for the West Australihn Government. Cast oeptembev, in Rome, Mr. Boas attended an international town-planning and housing congress which was at-

tended by 1,000 delegates representing 42 countries of the world. England and Europe are confining themselves principally to the question of housing rather than to townplanning, he says. In America the move is to the planning of towns, and the work there is of much more value to such countries as Australia and New 2iealand. America, says Mr. Boas, has approached the question of town-plan-ning through its various Chambers of Commerce and real estate organisations who have organised public opinion in favour of the new developments. Millions of dollars have been raised in bond issues for the improvement of streets, boulevards, parks and open spaces, -and all these improvements are being carried out in accordance with a preconceived comprehensive plan. Architects are working with the Town-Planning Boards and excellent results have followed. After-the-war problems in Europe have necessitated the jveople there paying more attention to a general ! economic settlement. A great deal of ; work has been done in cleaning up j the slums in many of the big cities on ! the Continent where big tenement I schemes have been in progress for

some time. In London, also, many of the slum areas have been done away with, and the people moved to blocks of large modern tenements. In the war zones in Europe Mr. Boas found that the building had been so rapid that little attention had been I paid to modern ideas of town-plan-ning, and the villages and towns had been rebuilt much as they were before the war.