PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 733: 
foregoing ideal sketch assumes a fairly level site, but where this 
condition is absent the gradients should be most carefully con- 
sidered. And here, again, the cast-iron uniformity of the chess- 
board type shows its entire unsuitability to varying natural 
conditions. I have in my mind’s eye ludicrous examples of this. 
For instance, there is a fairly level cathedral city in New South 
Wales, possessing towards one corner a steep hill from which 
there is a beautiful view. This would have formed a most 
admirable reserve, but it so happens that two streets intersect 
exactly at the top of the hill. They are too steep for traftic, and 
hence the town council is compelled to laboriously cut away the 
very boon which nature had provided the city with. Again, at a 
health resort on the Blue Mountains, most irregular and 
diversified in contour, the chess-board plan has produced streets 
up and down which it is difficult even to walk, and for horse 
traffic they are practically impassable, whereas by the use of 
curved roads following the natural configuration of the hills, easy 
gradients could have been obtained at a tithe of the cost for 
construction, and they would also have been immeasurably more 
useful to the inhabitants. 
DECORATION. 
The beauty, or otherwise, of town or city must have an effect 
on its inhabitants. The long, unlovely street pictured by our 
poet laureate could not but depress even the least sensitive of its 
residents, and the evil is aggravated when, as in a chess-board 
city, the streets are all alike. Now, the “spider’s web” plan 
possesses not only the advantage of convenience, but also of 
variety, and we all know that “variety is charming.” Scarcely 
any two of the blocks would be exactly the same size, the angles 
made by the streets with each other would differ, and these 
together with the trapezoidal allotments, would call for special 
treatment. In the hands of an architect who knows how to use 
it, an irregular site is a godsend. Such a site enables him to get 
out of the beaten track, and design something fresh and original, 
while even the tyro cannot make his structure absolutely like 
everything else. Then as to the streets—their width should be 
ample, both on the score of health and beauty, but they should 
not be all the same. Taking one chain as a minimum for side 
streets, three chains are not too great for the main arteries or 
boulevards. This width would allow of their subdivision into 
three roads, with intervening footpaths and rows of trees, the 
central road being paved for heavy traflic and tram lines. There 
are some examples of this type in Melbourne, and their manifold 
advantages will be more and more appreciated as population 
increases. And, in passing, let me pay a tribute of praise to the 
vigorous way in which the municipal councils of Victoria have 
