Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1915 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME TOWN HELPS

TOWN PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA Antipodean* Show Wise interest in Subject and Profit by Experience nauiiEmm. terest in <tbe subject of . town Jamming and housing -in general. The trouble with older countries had been ; that they-have not "begun to think much about improving, housing conditions until housing &>iidftionS have got to be Insufferably bad. Australia, being a young country, should be able to profit by the Unfortunate example of other countries, and it to apparent that Australia to striving to do this. " ■ Building, an Australian publication, devotes much space; to this subject Alluding, for example, tp the direction ( of the movement in Viktoria by the Town Planning and Parks' association, these activities are described as intelligent, enthusiastic and energetic. “The.flow of active campaigning established,” it appears, “threatens altogether to swamp the slum and its bedded evils beyond the hope of re-establishment. * “The adsociatiod, very sensibly, is enlisting the sympathy and support of the masses by alert regard for their well being. The essentials of the movement bear directfy on the existence of that section of the people whom circumstances have handicapped. This the association Settled evils which primarily deny the common heritage of sunlight are being squelched. Conditions of riving scarcely befitting the brute Creation, hut to which human flesh and blood Are subjected, ari being swept way as speedily as the ponderous arm of tjie law can he operated. In brief, the movement In Victoria, directed by the Town Planning and Parks’ association, 1b making good. "The association is making a special point of making plain the principles of town planning to those in.the position of facilitating reforin.' For instance, the mayors and councilors of the municipalities and shires wore recently circularized on the new and extensive powers conferred upon lqpal governing bodies, by recent amendments of the act. A portion of that circular rdads: “ it is hoped that advantage-<wiii be taken at once - of those powers—applied, perhaps, in conjunction with building regulations’to avdid the creation of slum or insanitary areas. In this connection Bt. Kllda couneii has recently passed a by-law providing for a minimum area, devoted exclusively to open space, for each , dwelling equal to at least eight-eighteenths of that occupied by dwelling and outhouses.’ ”