Editorial Comment

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 2, 1 October 1915, Page 441

Editorial Comment

How Big should a City be ?

Not a question for New Zealanders, we suppose, or at any rate one we

can leave for future generations to ponder. Leaving aside the great problem of population flocking to the towns, there is the equally important one of securing healthy and happy homes for those who live in these great overgrown wens of civilisation. Ebenezer Howard, an English authority on city-planning, places the maximum population of the ideal city at about 32,000, depending somewhat on the size of the component families. Increase in population should be provided for he thinks, by building another city near by. Mr. Howard’s ideal city covers 6,000 acres, of which about half is cultivated, the other half being occupied by streets and buildings. The success of the Garden City movement in England from the point of view not only of the lives of its inhabitants, but their industrial efficiency, is the most potent argument against large cities that we can produce. It is significant that the editor of “Engineering and Contracting” agrees emphatically with the Garden City pioneer, Howard, in his conclusions regarding the undesirability of large cities. He asserts in a leading article that the idea of the great city as a permanent construction is itself an error. None of its component parts exists long. “As engineers,” he says “ let us see how the engineering tasks of a city are affected by size. The engineering tasks of a city are primarily to provide transit, to supply, purify, and distribute water, to provide sewerage and dispose of sewage, to secure sanitary housing, to pave and keep clean streets and roadways. The accomplishment of none of these tasks becomes a serious problem until the city area and population become large. Generally the larger the city is, the more difficult and therefore costly are the solutions that must be resorted to, assuming that quality of service is maintained. In a word, all the engineering difficulties of a great city are due primarily to its size and not to any superiority of the service provided. Cities of 200,000 usually have as good water-supply and as good sewage as do cities of 2,000,000, their people get from home to work as quickly, their streets streets are as clean and well paved, their housing and

sanitation are as good. Where, then, is the advantage of great size ? Is it in educational advantages, opportunities for amusement or social life or religious activity? Every one knows that in none of these things does the small city deny its inhabitants any material advantage had by the inhabitants of a large city. Why should cities vie with one another to attain size ? Size, merely, makes a city no more fit to serve its inhabitants."

Trade with Germany

The war has played havoc with many economic theories which have failed when put to its rude test, but it his demon-

strated elements of strength in the Imperial spirit hardlyhoped for by the most earnest advocates of the great ideal. Trade will undergo a revolution when the struggle is over, and to. some extent we can prepare for this by understanding facts as they existed before the war. New Zealand has been building up a very substantial trade with Germany. Its large extent was hardly realised until, seven months before the war, the Customs Department commenced a new statistical system requiring full and authenticated evidence of the country of origin of all imports. The figures for seven months prior to August 1914 were quoted by the Minister of Finance in Parliament when the war taxation proposals were being debated. He said it was very extraordinary what New Zealand imported from enemy countries. The items and values of goods imported from Germany in the seven months were as follows: —- £ Apparel ... ... 89,000 Cream of tartar ... 22,000 Drapery ... ... 33,000 Fancy goods ... ... 55,000 Hardware ... ... 34,000 Hosiery ... ... 24,000 Electrical Machinery ... 36,500 Manures ... , ... 149,300 Pianos ... ... 24,700 Seeds ... ... 25,000 Tyres for motors ... 89,000 All other articles ... 458,000 Total ... 1,039,500

The Minister added that importations from Austria during the same period were valued at £49,000, Turkey £30,000, Asiatic Turkey £39,000. The Customs Department was of opinion that had we gone on importing for a year at the same rate the total would have reached £1,700,000. Nowadays trade followed the ship rather than the flag, but the overseas dominions after the war should see to it, by legislation of this sort, that their money did not go to benefit those who used it to fight our own people. The Bill under discussion imposes a surtax of 50 per cent upon goods imported from an enemy country. New Zealand is prepared to forego its trade with a customer which makes trade only at a means to an endand end of relentless unscrupulous war. Our large imports from Germany do not represent one-half of the old commercial relation now broken off. Germany in the year prior to the war imported New Zealand products valued at £337,448, wool representing £277,000 of this total, scheelite ore £16,000 and kauri gum £27.880. We must find new customers for these products, and a great organisation of Empire trade will have to grow up if the

re-adjustments are to be smoothly made. It will be a big test of commercial patriotism to cut out so large a customer, but the legislature has given a lead which our business men will readily follow.

Public Works

Labour conditions will restrict our public works policy while the war lasts, and so many thousands of able-bodied

men are at the front, so that the financial necessities of the times fit in quite well with a steadying policy evident in the Public Works Statement brought down by the Hon. Wm. Fraser. New Zealand investors are to be asked to lend money for our public works, but the success of the loan— may be confidently anticipated—will not destroy the caution with which the money will be spent. Too many odds and ends of little railways are in hand, and this slackening of expenditure will emphasise the waste of tinkering. More attention should be concentrated on a few important lines, especially arterial ones which must be finished before the Dominion can boast a complete system of arterial railways. When the developement of the country’s water-power resources was commenced, the Government wisely concentrated attention on one scheme at a time, and it has turned out even thus early to be an assured success. The three units of generating plant now installed are capable of an output equal to 6,000 horse-power; and the present demand, added to that in prospect, for which contracts have been arranged, calls for the immediate installation of a fourth unit of 2,000 horse-power, and there are indications that two further units of generating plant will have to be provided in the not-distant future. The tunnel and headworks already constructed are sufficient to provide for probable expansion during the next six or seven years, when it is expected that the output will adequately supply the district which can be economically served from the Lake Coleridge scheme. The existing pipe-lines are of sufficient capacity to drive the fourth unit of machinery now on order, and the power-house can accommodate this unit without additions. Feederlines have been extended to Lyttletcn, Sunny side and Tai Tapu districts, and futher extentions are under consideration. Negotiations are proceeding with different borough authorities in South Canterbury as far as Timaru, and provided satisfactory arrangements are made, a transmission-line will be erected between the powerhouse at Lake Coleridge and Timaru, from which the whole of South Canterbury will be supplied. The Minister of Public Works states that the demand for electrical energy by power-users throughout Canterbury is most encouraging, ranging from the electrical tramways, local bodies, and larger industrial concerns to small farmers, who find that by utilizing a local organization such as a dairy-factory company they can with advantage bring the current on to every farm for lighting and machinedriving purposes. The total expenditure on this scheme from its inception to the 31st March last was £262,034, and the installation of the fourth unit is expected to place business on a footing where interest on capital, maintenance, depreciation, and working-expenses will all be defrayed out of revenue. Subsequent additions of plant to satisfy a growing demand should increase the margin of profit. The Minister promises that a North Island hydro-electric shall now receive attention, and the probability is that Lake Waikaremoana will be selected as the source of power.