THE LAYING OUT OF TOWNS. 58^ 



most cases the surveyor has simply to make the best of the site 

 allotted to him, and, whether a supply of water is obtaimxble within 

 a reasonable distance or not, here the town must go. The water 

 must be brought to the town and the sewage find its way out. 

 But even supposing that the surve3'or laid out his town in a place 

 fulfilling all the required conditions and with the proverbial 

 attractiveness of the spider's web added, still up will go the real 

 bricks and mortar town in close proximity to the centre of the 

 work, whilst the survey pegs of the theoretic metropolis are rotting 

 in the trenches or being ploughed up by the farmer. 



It is only in surveying a country prior to settlement that Mr. 

 Sulman's suggestions could be carried out, and, unfortunately for 

 the adventurous profession we have the honor to represent, such an 

 opportunity is of rare occurreuce. The initial survey of South 

 .Australia, half a century ago, afPorded such scope. Had Colonel 

 Light, to whom credit is universally accorded for his selection of 

 the site and for the design of Adelaide, had the privilege of 

 perusing the paper now under consideration it is probable that the 

 chief city of this province would now stand an imperishable 

 monument to the spider's web system, instead of only showing, as 

 it does, that the gallant colonel was conversant with a move or two 

 on the chessboard pattern ; and here we take the liberty of express- 

 ing our doubts as to the suitability of the new system, if adojDted 

 in its entirety, to replace the old, and are not yet prepared to 

 abandon the simple geometry of the chessboard in favor of the 

 mathematical complexities of the spider's web. 



DESIGN. 



Admittedly, in some respects, a city more beautiful from an 

 architectural point of view could be built on Mr. Sulman's plan 

 than in any other, but even then the extra beauty would be largely- 

 confined to the very centre of the town, and it is questionable 

 whether some important considerations would not in this case, as 

 in many others, be sacrificed at the shrine of beauty. 



By reserving a sufiiciently large space in the centre it is true 

 that ample frontage could be provided for the erection of all the 

 principal public buildings, and this part of the town could be made 

 very attractive, but once leave the magic circle and the eligi- 

 bility of position decreases in inverted geometrical progression as 

 the distance increases. Every owner of city lands, not being the 

 fortunate proprietor of one of those acute angles in which Mr. 

 Sulman revels, has the disadvantage of having to travel round one 

 or another of these angles before he can reach the architectural 

 paradise of the centre, in short, the heart of the system is apt to 

 be exalted at the cost of every other part of it. 



Granted that the irregular frontages can be used up with good 

 effect by an able architect, yet this would be at great sacrifice of 

 frontage, which the owners would be reluctant to allow where the 



