TOWN PLANNING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 44, 14 August 1911, Page 4

TOWN PLANNING.

It is said that the Hon. Geo. Fowlds' Town Planning" Bill is; exciting hardly any interest among politicans and therefore its fate is dubious. Except in. a few cases New Zealand towns aTe not beautiful, not convenient, and the residential portions nearest the business area are "slutiimy." In most cases the surroundings of New Zealand towns are beautiful, and it is probable that the general feeling is that there is little necessity for urban improvement. Necessarily in ft new country there is a good deal of makeshift, but everybody knows that in a few years with the natural advance that must inevitably take place, our towns •will be more densely peopled and must, because of the temporary nature of the buildings, be almost entirely re-modelled. This 'necessity has been shown in all the cities where great reclamation, works have followed the hv crease of population. One reason, perhaps, for the slapdash'style of township building is the nomadic nature of the New Zealander. He is a traveller, and at the present juncture (it is the same in all new countries) he rears his shingle in the town -that is in the throes of a mild boom. New towns will inevitably grow out of the beautiful wilderness, and it is in regard to these problematical depots that .tow'n-planriing. should l>e most useful. The aim'of a person !o-' cated in a place whera he hopes to live his whole life is Ho obtain a substantial, healthy and permanent house, whether it be a business house or a dwelling-place. If it weie unlawful to build "slapdash" places, if municipal bodies concentrated on the resumption .of congested areas—as the London County Qoimcil does—and recognised that air spaces in the'centres of towns were as necessary as fine buildings and towering New Zealand towns might in time be worthy to remain alongside the beauties of the New Zealand country. t Mr. Fowlds rightly concludes that the force that is to reform New Zealand towns and create beautiful and healthful new ones, is public sentiment. < While there is tacit permission on the part of authorities for the erection of insanitary rookeries and unventilntcd architectural horrors, they will continue to offend the eye and impair the health. New Zealand is worthy of beautiful, clean, healthy towns, and the necessity f<jr them is apparent to everyone.who foresees a rapid increase of both urban and rural population.