44 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



even broader and more liberal conception as regards public improve- 

 ments, than in the past. 



The seaport town of Durban, for instance, has been bountifully 

 treated by Nature. It has been given great physical advantages, 

 which, by enlightened action on the part of the Colonists, have been 

 directed to " the use and convenience of man," to such good purpose 

 that we now have one of the finest ports in this sub-Continent. 

 Nature has also been lavish in providing an ideal site for a great 

 commercial city of unlimited dimensions, set amid surroundings 

 of almost unrivalled semi-tropical beauty, and with exten- 

 sive environments of the most charming character for residential 

 purposes. The levels of these, while they place but few obstacles in 

 the way of access, and development by tramway extension, raise the 

 sites for residences to a height above sea level not only conducive to 

 health conditions, and affording every facility for drainage purposes, 

 but spread out before the residents such a panorama of ocean, bay, 

 and town, as is seldom to be met with. On one of our clear-cut 

 days after rain, w'hen the heavens are full of the unapproachable 

 colour which Ruskin calls " blue fire," those of us who have any eye 

 for colour, cannot help arresting their steps to drink from the cup which 

 Nature holds out to them, and whose contents reflect the prodigality 

 of all that is most glorious in her many-hued vestments. Therein 

 one beholds the shimmering sea, the placid wind-streaked Bay, and 

 the gold and green and russet setting of wide stretching vlei and 

 virgin bush. And embowered amid all this is a spreading city, along 

 whose sea-girt margin flutter the " white wings of commerce," and 

 at whose quays are moored the leviathan steamships of the greatest 

 empire of the world. And this is only one of the many future cities of 

 this great countrv, whose destiny is committed by its citizens to the 

 Municipalities. Their arti.stic planning and architectural beauty 

 depends entirely upon the spirit in which the task is approached, and 

 the broad-mindedness and enlightenment which is brought to bear in 

 dealing with them. And how is this to be attained? I think our 

 American cousins have, with their usual resourcefulness, shown us 

 the path. 



Perhaps it is easier, however, to answer the question in a nega- 

 tive way, by pointing out how it cannot be done, and that is by 

 laying out and building new streets, from year to year, on no definite 

 plan, with no definite aim as regards ultimate appearance, without 

 any definite views as to the best reservations for, and development of, 

 public Parks, without suflScient control as regards the architectural 

 design and construction of the buildings which are erected, 

 by the erection wholesale of every conceivable variety of 

 jerrv-built cottage, villa, and unsightly store, the only consideration 

 regarding which is whether it will pay the speculative builder, or the 

 owner, who labours under the delusion that there is no commercial 

 value in artistical design, and that a generously-minded builder is 

 going to give him, at an absurdly lower figure, the same building 

 as he would get through a competent architect; and by a policy, 



