The Daily news MONDAY, JANUARY 15. "SMALLER CITIES."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8028, 15 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily news MONDAY, JANUARY 15. "SMALLER CITIES."

Mit John Burns, a member of the I Cabinet in the Old Country, if; eonsidered to bo the hope of the working- i man, and recently crystallised the es- J sentinls for a Brighter Britain in a ( few terse words. Two of these were ] " smaller cities." People in most countries regard the rapid growth of 1 cities as an evidence of the growth of j prosperity, and the accumulation of , population in one congested heap as 1 something to bo rather proud of. ' Conceive, for instance, the scorn of a Wellingtoniari for a mere New-Ply- 1 mouthian, or the superior attitude of ' the Aucklander towards the Thamesite, and so on. And yet the cure for the curse of poverty is decentralisation. Wherever there is a huge and growing population there is also growing distress. Wherever there is a great city there is a great " disease return." Wherever there is a city of overgrown size, there the criminal classes will gather, chiefly because the " eagles prefer the fattest carc:.se." It is better to have six widely severed towns than one huge city, just rs it is beat for all concerned that a thousand men shall own an acre each than that one man shall own a thousand acres "to his own cheek." The New < Zealand Government has recognised this for many years, and although the New Zealand cities are growing very rapidly, and the overcrowding evil grows with the cities, decentralisation is the object of the " powers that be."

The cutting up of large estates, the birth of small towns, and the hiving off of suburbs from the great civic beehives, are very line tonics for the social disease? that atßict civilisation. The air of heaven is the property of all, but is available to a comparatively small proportion. 'J be sky belongs as much to the Wliitechapel beggar us to "my lord but the beggar sees little of it.. We feel sorry for overcrowded Britain and over crowded Europe. They are not really overcrowded, however. It is merely tiie cities that are stuffed with people. A large city is a place where the weak individual stands a firstrate chance of having all the individuality crushed out of him, bicause he is attracted thither by the opportunities that so frequently occur to "do" his fellow-man. Decentralise the weakling, and lie may become stronger. Give him some of the air of heaven and a bit of the earth to call his own, and ho becomes a king in comparison to his former self. * * * *

Rustic communities or scattered s; V tlements are healthier than urban communities or individuals, and remain more natural. Always Nature exacts a penalty for disobe Hence of her plain instructions. Nature detests diet. That is why mortality is greater in crowded areas. The most effective sanitation does not compensate for the lack of air space and natural living.' There is no Jise.seslayer like the sun. No smellful chemical in a bottle labelled " disinfectant" will supersede in usefulness the planet many people worship, and which civilised people usually pull down the blinds to shut out. It is because people protect themselves from Nature that "smaller cities" are necessary. A city population is governed by conventions, ami is rather scared of what " Mrs Brown will say," or " what Mrs Jones will think." Remember, too, that in the scheme of nation-making it is not the city people who build the walls. It is the hard sloggers in the rural districts who are the chief circumstance, and without whom the cities would not be, or their inhabitants live the artificial life impossible in small communities.

Tn« demand for more comfort and a bad liver becomes louder every year. The world is getting " study," and people will yet go back to mufflers and respirators if somebody doesn't shout down artificiality, the remit of "civilisation" and crowded cities. Here wo have wider life, and although New Zealand knows a little of slums, it will nut know more if we take for our motto, " decentralise." New Zealand has recognissl in a far greater degree than Australia, the potency of decentralisation, and for its comparatively small area it has many more small towns than the Commonwealth. There is no particular virtue in the growth of a Chicago in a month. While New Zealand has a very large number of small towns, most of which are thriv-

ing iu a reasonable way. there is, nevertheless, a toiidenev for the people in the country to be drawn to the centres. The more people there are in a town the worse the poverty and the overcrowding, bocau.se the weak always go to the wall. In older countries the weak are ciowded ir'j the slums and cannot get out, because the wealthy not only hold tho towns but keep the country locked up. What the colonies have to guard against is the increase of the land monopolist the strictest enforcement of the limited area, making it impossible for one man to cr'iwd out a thousand, and tho incessant promulgation of the go-.pel of d: eni-.d-isation. In d. :entriiHsafion is P,ritain's only hope, and in the avoidance of great citi. > and trowded areas lie the colonies' future success. A country's wealth ; s not to be gauged by the number of lni'lionair ; it turns ont. It is to be judged by the number of pi iplo which ce.i be prevented from beconrng nii"ionaires.