The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1911. TOWN PLANNING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1025, 14 January 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1911. TOWN PLANNING.

It is regrettable that New Zealand was not ettectively represented at tho lown Planning Exhibition and Cpnw n r?* W i hlch w l ro lleld in last October under the auspices of ™<- <>f British Archi.reccs. uie to-.vn-planning movement is no inoro artistic fad. It is part of a great social development which is EWon in all parts of the world, iix. Conference included representatf.cs from France, Germany, Italy, .jolgium, and America, and it was admitted that some of these countries nacl more to teach England than to learn from her The present townplanning movemont, according t-o tho survey of Mr. Daniel H. Buhnham, a1 U n an °ft;he United States Fine Arts Commission, in a speech at the : Conforencc banquet, is hardly ten years old, There have been townpianning epochs in the past," notably m l<ranee, Austria, and Italy, but wio fresh interest in tho subject is a matter of. tho last decade". Other countries, especially America, are quic.ier to take hold of a new idea, but when Britain adopts one, it receives at ouoo a great impetus. It iVill bo thus with town-planning. In the Housing and Town-Planning Act, and the subsequent conferenca and exhibition England has taken har place in the front rank of tho movement. Now Zealand, receiving its ideas on most things from tho Mother Country,' has already begun to discuss town-planning, and will probably soon be endeavouring to reduce its elements to practice. Tho essential idea of tho movement is that a city should bo regarded as a unit of design, just as a houso is now. When a houso is to be -built for a, family, its members do not up tluir rooms sep-

arately, mako individual arrangements for lighting, firing, watersupply, and sanitation, and create aesthetic discord by presenting to tho public view a mean patchwork of different colours, materials, and methods of construction. What is now beginning to bo moro fully realised than in tho past is that a local community is but a largor and more loosely-knit family, and that only by consultation, co-operation, and a reasonable subordination of individual wishes/and interests to the. general welfare.can the town be mado as comfortable, as pleasant, as healthy, and as beautiful as it ought to' be.

Artistic effect is only one of tho objccts of town-planning. The whole problem of the organisation of. city life is involved—tho housing of the workers, the location of industries, tho provision of parks and playgrounds, sanitation, lighting, transit, architecture, markets, meeting places, postal, and telephone scrviccs—everything in fact which goes to make up tho sum of the necessities and amenities of an urban community. M. Eugene Henard, addressing the conference, conjured up_ imaginative possibilities for the cities of the future. The citizens, he suggested, would have nearly everything done'for them on laboursaving and hygienic lines. Vacuum cleaning would be organised, letters and parcels would be delivered through pneumatic tubes, liquid air for refrigeration, and petrol for heating, would bo laid on in pipes. Sea-water and pure air would be brought in mains from the coast. If smoke-producing chimneys were still allowed, a largo fire-proof main, running along tho centre of each street, would convey the smoke away. Such visions are very well for those whose good intentions require tho stimulus of a distant ideal. Tho first and most practical considera-. tion must be the ground plan, but there can be no satisfactory ground plan without some true foresight of future requirements. The scientific laying-off of new urban areas, which is one of the chief improvements contemplated under' tho jiew English Act, has hitherto received very little consideration in New Zealand. The immediate interests of the speculator, modified by compliance with the Public Works Act and the local by-laws, are all that is taken into account. It should not bo difficult to alter this, but the improvement of existing .urban areas is a very different matter and can only, be effected gradually, Yot, oven in this, older pnuntriee, with greater obstacles to

surmount, have shown us tho way. A complete scheme covering the T/hole city should ba drawn up, and then, year by year, as opportunity offers and as public funds permit, portions, small or largo, of this schcnie should be carried out. Above aU, it should be made impossible to erect any building or execute any public work which would later on become an obstacle to the complete realisation of the civic improvement plan. Australia's interesting task of creating a pew capital is not for us, but there is much to be done in giving a new comeliness to our existing cities and towns.

The question as to what authority should bo empowered to draw up such a plan and impose it on the community will, of course, have to be faced. If the subject is dealt with in this country during the present Administration, there will be a grave danger of a further intrusion of Government control into tho proper sphere of the local authorities. Not only should the Tramways Act bo enough to put us on our guard against such an attempt-, but we haye had in this city unmistakable evidence of Administrative perversity on some of the very questions ivith which town-planning must concern itself. The Government's truculent and wanton disregard of municipal by-laws and its determination to place, itself beyond their scope have been clearly illustrated during the past few weeks. The arrangement between the Government and tho'City Council fof the reconstruction of tho streets surrounding the Parliamentary Buildings may be an earnest of more reasonable conduct, but "Wellington cannot soon forget that it was a Government which, by building what was meant for a prison, on Mount Cook, defaced tho finest site in the whole city. The new Government Houso is not exactly a proof that town-planning should be added to the functions of the Public Works Department. Whatever legislation is proposed, care must bo taken that Ministers shall not bo enabled to make town-planning, like road and railway building, a portion of their general scheme of rewarding and punishing the electorates. The Government, of course, must take part in tho movement, and in Wellington, where State buildings will always be among the principal features of the city, its co-operation: is particularly necessary; but we should like to see New Zealand cities following tho public-spirited examples which have liave been set in America. At San Francisco an association of private men backed tho work. At Chicago, the Commercial Club took it up, and its committee of lo members held, in three years, 200 meetings, at which hundreds of public men, including architects, engineers, sanitary, railway, city transportation, and other experts were present. The "townplanning men" in every city, ac-cording-to Mr. Buhnham, are the ablest in the community, and each feels that he has no duty more serious or more important. ' A TownPlanning Commission for Wellington, while it would no doubt be largely guided by the City Engineer, Mr. W. H. Morton, whose real enthusiasm for tho work, is sadly hampered by want of. the necessary financial and administrative means, should include local architects, Government representatives, well-select-ed experts in different branches of the subject, and public-spirited citizens. Tho first thing' to.bo done will bo to get into toueh : with those who are continuing in England what was 1 begun by the late Conference and Exhibition.