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Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 1 June 1921, Page 221

Town Planning Adviser.

The Government’s Budget of 1920 contained a short but definite paragraph about Town Planning, which gave great promise of tangible results. It said :

The important question of town planning is being considered. There are many beneficial clauses in land and local bodies’ legislation at present on the Statute Book. These and other provisions will be embodied in a measure which will be introduced in the House. If the Bill

cannot be put through in the present session it is proposed to appoint a town planning expert, whose services will be available to all local bodies

and who will be able to advise upon the best and latest ideas in this important branch of local

government.

bias this promise been forgotten? From what we hear the Government intends to seriously take up the matter. Town Planners may not get all they have asked for straight away, especially as the financial position will make any Government chary of creating new offices with substantial salaries, but there is sometnmg important under consideration which we hardly feel inclined to more fully discuss at the moment. What is proposed is not all we desire, but it will be a good start, and quite on the lines favoured by the New Zealand Town Planning Conference. The policy laid down by that Conference was to give a large, almost a complete measure of local control of the movement, the State contenting itself with furnishing impartial advice and expert assistance. There is such a grave objection to centralisation that we think the Town Planners and their friends the local administrators who attended the Conference were wise in their modifications of the Bill proposed by the Hon. G. W. Russell. But the necessary stimulus to action must come from a thoroughly competent town planner, who will bring his knowledge and insight to bear on local problems in such a way that his work will be welcomed by the local administrators, who will find in this impartial official the justification they need in asking authority from the ratepayers for expenditure.

Architectural Competitions. In another column we publish a letter from a correspondent signing himself “ Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” which we would commend to the attention of our architectural readers. The principal point raised by our correspondent causes us to reflect that a profession whose members are willing (and in some cases anxious) to publicly compete with each other for the mere chance of employment can never occupy as authoritative or distinguished a position as one whose counsel is directly sought from its members, according to their qualifications. We think the architectural profession is suffering the consequences of having too readily officially countenanced competitions as a means of selection. The benefit of personal consultation or co-operation with the persons or bodies that are to use the building when built tends to confirm the impression held by some sections of the public, that architects are primarily picture-makers, and that the owner’s interests do not demand personal contact with the architect. While we are not disposed to go as far in condemnation of competitions as our correspondent, we believe the principle is being abused, and that architects are being exploited. What is wanted is close supervision by the Institute. That body, acting for the whole profession, should endeavour to induce the Government and other public authorities to take its advice in framing the conditions. The Institute should go even further. If the subject is one which ought not to be the basis of a competition, the Institute should veto the proposal, and prevent the. "profession from touching it except on the usual scale rates. Such a policy, wisely carried out, would stop attempts to get alternative designs for comparatively trivial works at a cost of next to nothing, but it would still leave the field open for national competition for worthy objects. So many young and rising architects have secured a big lift through important competitions that we believe these things, wisely directed, to be of value as a spur to effort and initiative. If competitions were abolished, the result would be a narrowing of the range of selection, possibly even the introduction of log-rolling to secure the choicest

commissions. We should imagine that when a work of magnitude is selected by impartial and expert judges who know nothing of the individuals submitting the drawings, genius is more likely to come to the front than under conditions which give the possessor of a well known name a special advantage.

The Cost of Living. The Government Statistician has just published the cost of living statistics on which the Arbitration Court made its recent pronouncement regarding the future basis of wages. Meat prices have dropped so substantially that although the price of bread and flour caused an increase of 34 points in the grocery group, and eggs a rise of 43 points in the dairying group, the index number for the whole of the food groups shows a drop of five points. There is some comfort to be got out of the statistical comparison which has been officially prepared, and which is more up to date than any previous attempt of the sort. For instance, it will be seen from the table given below that the information from the United Kingdom has been obtained by cable. New Zealand seems to stand out well as a comparatively cheap country in which to live ; —United States, July, T4-Feb., ’2l, 55%; India, July, ’i4-Nov., ’2O. 61%; New Zealand, July, T4-April, ’2l, 69%; S’th Africa, July, Jan., ’2l, 72%; Australia, July, ’l4-March, ’2l, 81%; Canada, July, ’l4-Jan., ’2l, 95%; Holland, July, ’l4-Jan., ’2l, 99%; U. Kingdom, July, ’l4-May, ’2l, 132%; Sweden, July, ’l4Feb., ’2l, 162%; Denmark, July, ’l4-Jan., ’2l. 176%; Norway, July, ’l4-Feb., ’2l, 208%; Italy, July, ’l4-Feb., ’2l, 276%; France, July, ’l4-Feb., ’2l, 282%; Belgium, July, ’l4-Jan., ’2l, 393%; Finland, July, ’l4-Oct., ’2O, 1,072%. The Government Statistician has gone into the movement of wholesale prices in addition. We have no space to follow him in the process, but it is important to indicate the net result, which is that while the produce of the land shows a very solid drop, general merchandise and crockery is still 1 1 1.23 per cent, above pre-war level; building materials 128.67; and coal 122.63 P er cent, above pre-war point. It is interesting to add, from our own observation, that in America (where prices have slumped to a greater degree than in New Zealand) building materials show great obstinacy over, the deflation process.

Building Slackness

No sooner do we get over troubles due to shortage of material, than tne financial stringency puts the break upon well-directed efforts to overcome the leeway of the last six years in building of houses and commercial blocks. Auckland seems to be suffering more than any other part of the Dominion, for there are several large buildings in that city held up, not for want of labour or

material, but apparently because the owners cannot, or will not, finance the undertaking on the present scale of interest. When large semi-public bodies offer 7 per cent, free of income tax, on a giu-edged security, it will be seen that the ordinary private borrower has little chance of financing on a reasonable scale. Hence the slackness. The constant shortage of cement encouraged large importations, with the result that there is a glut, and the Golden Bay works is threatened with stoppage. • Surely with the complete control over building which has been exercised by the Board of Trade, this glut of imported cement could have been avoided. The authorities knew exactly what the New Zealand market would absorb in a year, and what the local works could produce. They were giving facilities in the way of remission of duty to those wno imported cement, and it seems difficult to understand why the break was not applied to imports in time to prevent a dislocation of the New Zealand industry. The whole thing goes to show that artificial methods of control, while capable of remedying some evils, produce a crop of other troubles. As for the financial pinch which has caused the immediate trouble in the building trade, this is not a sudden or unexpected event. We have had months of training; in fact, New Zealanders are to some extent fortunate in being able to anticipate by so long a period the troubles which have hit other countries with even greater severity, and certainly with less warning. There is a talk of turning to the Government for help. But most of the Government’s surplus millions have gone into land at high values, and the Acting-Minister of Finance, who evidently does not keep pace with the optimistic cables emanating from the Prime Minister, declares that the Treasury chest is bare. Mr. Massey’s optimism is quite an asset, however, and if it charms some millions out of the British investor, for expenditure on public works in New Zealand, we may get over our slump with nothing worse than a temporary shudder.

New Zealand War Memorials.

Mr. S. Flurst Seager, in a personal note to the Editor from London, indicates that his work in connection with New Zealand war memorials on the various battle fronts will keep him in the Northern Hemisphere for some months to come. He was preparing for a visit to Gallipoli, to view the site and environment of a memorial to the glorious exploits of the New Zealanders on the Peninsula. From other sources we find that our Christchurch friend has had a hand in the setting out of war memorials to New Zealanders in France and Belgium. He has a genius for preparing lucid, well illustrated reports, and one of his productions has been of considerable value in official circles. It is good to know that a New Zealander with such high ideals has something to do with the perpetuation of the deeds which laid the real foundation of New Zealand as a nation.