PROFIT IN TOWN-PLANNING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 94, 22 April 1911, Page 4

PROFIT IN TOWN-PLANNING.

After several yeatts, during which The Post's readers have been given opportunities to study 'the town-planning policies of older cour tries, Wellington burgesses are at last realising that town-planning is not a mere academic subject for amateur debating societies. Various candidates for seats on the City Council have discussed town-planning in a more or less helpful manner, and at least one has outlined a fairly complete scheme and has given specific arguments to prove that the framing of the plan for the future expansion of the city and suburbs will be for the profit as well as the convenience of the inhabitants. The logical beginning is clearly a "stock-taking" conference by representatives of the Government, the Harbour Board, the City Council, and adjacent local bodies. Wellington's 'situation specially demands a plan for the avoidance of such costly mistakes as past years have witnessed, and happily the relation of the suburbs to the city must facilitate the making of such a plan. It is believed that the balance of Earori will be absorbed in Greater Wellington in no remote future. The Mayor of Miramar has staled that the planning of the borough (except in <mo important matter, public recreation grounds) has been devised to smooth the way for union with the ciby, and it will be advantageous for the Onslow Borough Council to heartily co-operabe with the City Council for mutual benefit. The field is open for good work on behalf of this generation and posterity. The call is for the driving force of enthusiasm and the directing energy of intelligence. Once- the ' thoughltfnl town-planners have cleared away th* last vestiges of the superstition that town-planning necessarily involves an immediate large expenditure and general upsetting of the inner area, some sensible progress 'should not long be delayed. To show that a town-planning policy should concern Wellington people today, we have only to mention the proposed new railway station. The Government has not yet definitely divulged the site, which is obviously a very important matter to the people of Welling-, ton and all New Zealand. So far- the citizens have no assurance that the site will' lit vi with ihe> tramway and sea services in the present and measurable future; Indeed, a candidate has suggested that it may be well to consider a site at the Te Aro end — .tho dock basin and the adjacent reclama-tion—-for the great bulk of Wellington's population now lies on the south side of the General Post Office. It has also been argued that Greater Wellington's development m?iy some day require a southern extension of the railway from Te Am This suggestion may be regarded to-day as something "in the air," but it has to be remembered that Wellington i» destined to be a very large city, and there are hundreds of acres of comparatively good building 1 land southwards. A birdi's-eye view reveals a large area that must carry a great population by-and-bye. The expansion of the hilly suburbs, too, will also demand) the selection of the arterial routes to connect with the city. This does not mean that the City Council has at once to set about a costly deviation or re-grading of Toads. The necessary work can be undertaken when the opportunity permits. The important thing now is to take all possible precautions to clear the path for the enterprise. Foresight now will mean a minimum of cosb and trouble in the future. We wisE to have the city's managers thinking in terms of years as well as days. Long vision prevents long prices for improvements which the city's growth will assuredly order.