A GARDEN CITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1730, 22 April 1913, Page 5

A GARDEN CITY.

SOMETHING DONE IN ENGLAND. • WHILE.. COLONIALS TALK. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, April 20. ' The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association entertained Mr. . Watt (Premier of Victoria), Sir Joseph Ward, Mr. Hobnail (Agent-General for New South Wales), Captain Muirlicad. Collins (secretary to the High Commissioner for Australia), and Mr. W. L. Bailliou (M.L.C., Victoria), at Letchwortb, the association's garden city, the area, of which is 3818 acres iind the development of which was coiiimcnccd in 1003,

Mr. Watt, in n speech; said that whilo tho colonies wero talking about townplanning; and garden cities England wa3 doing. Australia would gladly welcome the proposed visit of a town-planning delegation next year. Sir Joseph Ward, said that New Zealand had already. attempted to do by legislation what Letchworth had dono by private enterprise. Mr. ITolman 1 said social reform work had mainly been conceutratcd in improving the condition in workshops,' where on©; member of the family spent part of tho day, while the homes, where the wliolo family spent the greater part of their time, were neglected. Letchworth remedied this, ■

TOWN PLANNING POSSIBILITIES. The movement in Britain towards the better planning of cities, and the creation of industrial communities in garden environments, is gaining in force. To quote its own journal, it is ."assuming an Imperial aspect.'' Tho Garden Cities and Towu Planning Association will equip and send out a special emissary to deliver lantern Icctures in the principal cities and towns of Australia next year. Citizens of Australia and New' Zealand have already contributed towards tile expenses. Mr. Charles C. Eeade, a journalist well known in New Zealand for his lectures on the subject, is the organiser of tho tour. In the "Garden Cities antl Town Planning Magazine" ho has an articlo on "Australasias Need for Town Planning." and promises "revelations to our Pacific brethren" through tho lectures. Ho gives credit to the Sydney City Council for having "cleared away areas of slums and congested and tangled thoroughfares, to make way for broad, direct avenues of transit." The tour is to point tho way to a better era of men and cities. There will, be no need to- remind Australasians, he continues, that "to-day Britain h&s nearly 50 model communities laid out on the town-planning lines of places like Letchworth Garden City or the Hampstead Garden Suburb, or that, although the Sousing and Town Planning Act only dates from 1909, nearly 130 schemes prepared by local authorities aro projected or in progress of development. Oil these facts alone we can establish the claim that Britain to-day has a message for Australasia—the message of town planning." The articlo proceeds: "Most Australasian cilies are distracted by the same old problem as English centres—that of divided authority. The existence of numerous local bodies in each metropolitan area hampers tho solution of great civic problems—problems like the town plan or the prevention of overcrowding."