TOWN-PLANNING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 420, 6 December 1911, Page 3

TOWN-PLANNING.

A FAMOUS EXAMPLE

New Zealand's interest in schemes of town-planning is not likly to prove ephemeral, despite some checks and rebuffs at the beginning. The somewhat wholesale destruction of trees in our country districts here and there has had one wholesome effect: It has tended to make the dwellers in cities value trees more highly. Once the love of trees is ingrained, the first 3tep toward the establishment of garden cities is in a great measure assured. So far'as least our New Zealand cities have gone. There is a notably gracious wealth of trees in parts of Auckland and Christchurch; Dunedin has patches and clumps that redeem the insidious harshness of the place; even in Wellington the man who plants a tree is at length esteemed.

In England and America things have gone much further, so that in many places there is quite a cult of treeplanting. Trees are, indeed, the first essential of a beautiful city. _ The appealing loveliness and intimate charm of Paris, its haunting vistas and exquisite atmosphere, all this ia unthinkable apart from the trees. Much of the peculiar charm of BudaPesth is directlv attributable to the same cause. So in Dresden, and a dozen other historic cities easy to name. Squalour and trees can scarcely co-exist { but if squalour threatens in a modern city where trees are, men instinctively set to work to remove the squalour and preserve the trees. This is why, whenever town-planning is scientifically undertaken in Engalnd and America, we hear of garden-cities. There are already many such, each exerting a definitely beneficient influence that is felt far beyond its borders. Amongst the garden-settlements of England, Cadbuy's famous cocoa town of Bournville easily takes first place. There the idea of the garden-city goes, as it were, hand in hand with democracy. For Bournville is a little city of workers. The term "city" is used advisedly. It stands for completeness and harmony, rather than for size. Lichfield is a city, whereas Bradford is merely a great town. Bournville is a city in effect, because its parts are so admirably co-related that the appropriate urban harmony is produced. It has the true civic spirit, because in every inhabitant the enthusiasms of the community are militant. In Bournville it has been proved that a population of ordinary or average working folk can live in a town area, closely,., kept to daily tasks, and still live beautiful and spacious lives when work is done. If it were a Socai'ist settlement, we should be_ hearing every day how wonderful it is. Sir Joseph Ward and has party spent a dav at Bournville shortly before they feft England. Speaking to the writer of this note the other day, the Prime Minister made no concealment of his satisfaction with what he saw there. "I went all over the place," he said, "and the more I saw of it the better pleased I was. The Cadbury people have given practical application to all that Liberal polciy in New Zealand has hoped for for vears in the matter of housing the worker. The houses at Bournville are not only modern and commodious, thev are beautiful and set harmuniously among beautiful surroundings. The thing that happens is just what one might expect. The workers are cheered and invigorated by their conditions and environment. They have such self-repsect that they are courteous and helpful to each other and to everybody. That is beause they live under natural conditions. Beauty and order are not artificial. The,y earth was made beautiful by design, and whenever we destroy or pollute natural beauty, we defeat the divine intention. Tho houses and cottages at Bournville harmonise so with the beautiful trees and open spaces, and with each other, that they might almost have grown there. We had an I opportunity of seeing the great Cadbury chocolate and cocoa works, being taken over every part of them by Mr Cadbury himself. Here again we were greatly impressed by the wisdom and foresight of this firm. It has been displayed in the laying-out of the works just as much as in the planning of the town. As the business has develope. everything has been carried on with remarkable judgment. There is no trace of dirt or muddle, nothing to offend any decently cultivated sense. Right through, these are ttie cleanest works that I have ever seen. Considering how many thousand people are daily employed in them, it is wonderful. There is no suggestion of_a place swept and furnished for a public show. One realises that things are always just as one sees them. To see these great crowds of happy folk busily employed in these airy rooms, with everything sweet and orderly, and the whole place running with the smoothness of some exquisite machine, it is marvellous. In many places we see and hear of cleanliness in essential processes of manufacture, but at Bournville there is not a spot or smirch anywhere. There are splendid reserves and gardens. Most generous provision is made in the matter of sports and pastimes. There are football grounds, tennis courts, swimming baths. Nothing has been left undone that could be done to secure the health and happiness of this community of working folk. Nothing has been left undone that can ensure the turning out of the article produced in a state of absolute purity. You have perfect order and precision, on a site that is perfect beauty. At Bournville there is proof of what a private ; firm can do in the interest of its workers. The Liberal Party in New Zealand has merely insisted that what a private firm can do, the t State can help the people to do for i themsveles. Bournville is an object , lesson. It is also an encouragement,"*