"A DISGRACE TO CIVILISATION."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 105, 24 October 1911, Page 4

"A DISGRACE TO CIVILISATION."

''Tin; way suburban areas are beinjj cut uj) is a disgrace to civilisation." Tims Mr. <>'eo. Fowlds at a town-planning meeting at Wellington the other evening. Mo-it people will agree with him. To prevent its continuance was one of the objects of Mr. Fowlds' Town-Plan-ning Bill, which lie dropped because of the, adverse vote of the House on a provision to give the Governor-in-Couneil, otherwise the Cabinet of the day, certain powers over-riding the wishes of local bodies. It is a pity the Bill did not go through,' and that Sir. Fowlds so inadvisedly took the vote on what, after all, was not by any means a vital piineiple, in the way lie did. Then there would be an early prospect of an end being put to some of the practices that are rapidly making Xew Zealand towns a "disgrace to civilisation," and, what is more to the point, a danger to the health of the nation. We see evidence of this sort of thing even in New Plymouth. Speculators are buying up sections and crowding on them just as many buildings as they possibly can. There is one place just outside the borough boundaries we have in mind that possesses all the elements of a slum. We mooloo. The local ' authorities don't sec-ni to mind a bit, and it is time they wercv compelled to prevent, this slum creation. During the meeting whereat Mr. Fowlds made the observation referred to above, Mr, Chas. Reade mentioned that at Miramar a suburb of Wellington, there were rows of dwellings with frontages as narrow as '22 ft. all built within the last four years. At the back of one was a stable, with the inevitable manure heap. Mr. Reade. by a series of lantern views, contrasted this state of things, common to other towns in the Dominion (Xew Plymouth included) with the town-planning in force at Port Sunlight, Bouvncville, liampstead, Letch worth and other places. '•Town-planning," said Mr. Reade, "aspires to take the town into the country as well as the country into the town.' It was a safe, practical, commercial proposition, founded on experience. and the only thing against it which he could discover was that it was "made in Oermany." Town-planning was of three distinct types. There was the checker-board system, which made for straight streets and sharp corner*. The circular design went to the other extreme, and the streets, never tpi'ite straight, converged on large circular spaces. Out of these two methods arose the thii'd. which combined the good points of both. Port Sunlight was first dealt with. The principal features were the open spaces and the allotment gardens. There was no crowding, and thenwere no ugly corners where the sun could not reach. In the designing of the houses the old stvJe of English architecture, with all its quaintness and beautv, had been given effect to, and the whole place had been built at a cost of .Oofl,<IW. A few miles away was the city of Liverpool, with its smoke and its poverty, and some of the worst slums in England. Hounieville, 'built by Cad-bury Bros., was another little Elysium, from the pretty dwellings and artistic parks of which one was brought hack with cruel abruptness to n blind alley and a couple of tumble-down hovels in Auckland. As n further contrast the comparative death-rates of Bourneville and Birmingham were given. They showed:— Bourne- Binning-

villc. ham. Deaths per 1(100 1.5 17.<t Infantile- liiortnlity 75.5 170.5 Tin- average height of the boys j n the schools in Bourneville in 1007 was four inches above that of the Birmingham boys, while their average chest measurement was three inches greater. Another contrast was afforded by a comparison of the death-rates for Auckland and Wellington. Lctchwoith and Sheffield for 10011-10:--Ordinary. Infantile Auckland and Wellington (per 1000) .... 0.15 82.5 Letehworth 4.2 54.5 Sheffield 1(1.1 123.3 These figures tell their own tale. We hope tht-y will lead to the inauguration of a similar system in this Dominion. Xo civiii-ed country wants it more.