HEALTH AND HOMES'

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 202, 21 May 1919, Page 6

HEALTH AND HOMES'

SOME PRACTICAL' PROBLEMS.

At tho Town-planning Conference yesterday, Dr. .T. P. Frengley, representing the Public Health Department, read a paper on "The Health and Well-being of the People in Respect to Situation, Climate, and Soils: Their Homes and Environment." He Eaid the principles underlying town-planning were simple. Heath was tho end and aim of sound town-plonniiiE, an<l he was afraid that this fact tended to be obscured by considerations that really were Hie "windowdressing" of town-planning. Health wos not merely an absence of disease. It wos a positivo condition, physical, men-' ta-1, and moral, and no means iiad yet been evolved of measuring it exactly. Light, air, water, food, and sanitation were factors in producing and maintaining health. Depressing, surroundings, joyless homes, and lack of civic pride were factors inimical' to health. -

■ It was not. a correct assumption, said Dr. Frengley, that town-planning had been entirely neglected in New- Zealand. Sanitation, for example, had received a groat deal of attention. It was worth remembering that the straight streets which offended the . eve of the townplanner were, regarded with favour by the sanitar.y engineer. Standardisation of the homes was inimical to public health, because, it spelled monotony. The provision of building material was a problem to- be faced. Timber wns scarce, and had been lyine idle. - At the snnie time the nriee of land was continually rising. Of what use was it to tell the people how to build beautiful homes when the ovenire man could not buy either land or building materials?

Dr. Frengley quoted illustrations of the need of town-planning in New Zealand. A certain residential area had been laid out on an old swnmn. ..The r-*idc: hnrl Ven well mnde, but they stood above the level of the sections. The drainage consomiently was exceedingly bad, and the Health Department was called upon to solve an impossible Problem.