THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1926. PLANNING THAT IS NEEDED.

Wairarapa Age, 12 February 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1926. PLANNING THAT IS NEEDED.

The Municipal Conference now sitting at Palmerston North took a strangely irrational step when it passed a Dunedin remit providing for the preparation of a town planning scheme relating to only part of the area of a borough. In support of this remarkable proposal it was contended that the lines to be followed by portions of a borough at present undeveloped could not now be determined, and Mr. E. H. Andrews, of Christchurch, went so far as to declare that unless sectional planning could be undertaken, “the Act would break down under its own weight.” These arguments are indicative of a misconception of the objects and methods of town planning that must be regarded as somewhat astonishing at this time of day. One of the great merits of town planning, as distinct from haphazard growth, is that it offers a means of providing economically for the developments of a more or less distant future. And it is precisely because the wise policy of planning for the future has hitherto been neglected in this country that the general arrangement and lay-ouL of many of our towns is at present so unsatisfactory. Can anyone suppose, Lor instance, that if the Borough of Masterton had been methodically planned in its early days some parts of its area would have been aa. ill provided as they are now with conveniently arranged cross streets? A proper planning of streets would have cost very little indeed in the first place, and undoubtedly it would have saved a vast amount of expense and trouble later on.

In simple facts such as these, there is a more than sufficient answer to all that was said at the Municipal Conference in favour of the benighted policy of sectional planning. The preparation of a comprehensive development plan of an urban area need nowhere be a serious item of expense. Some of the arguments employed at the Municipal Conference point to a belief that the institution of town planning implies an immediate prosecution of costly improvements. This, of course, is not the case. All that town planning implies is that development and improvement, as they take place at their appointed time, shall proceed in accordance with a harmonious and well-considered plan. Town planning, in fact, is merely the substitution of method for haphazard blundering. There is, of course, no reason why a development plan should not be subject to some detail modification as time goes on. But even where the use to which a given area is to be put cannot yet be finally determined, there are certain essential features of development—a proper linking up of roads and streets and so forth—to be provided for. Unless it is prepared to scrap the Town Planning Act, the Government obviously cannot fall in with the proposal of the Municipal Conference that it should agree to tlyj sectional planning of urban areas. The fact that such a proposal has been advanced shows that there is still much to be done in this country in making the public and members of municipal bodies aware of what town planning really implies. The Government would perhaps best meet the position by arranging to have information on the subject of town planning broadcasted throughcut the Dominion by means of lectures and in other ways. A wealth of material is available in the experience of town planning and its benefits in Britain and other European countries and in America. A campaign of education should provide an assured means, of removing such needless obstacles as were raised at the Municipal Conference to the progress of a great and valuable reform.