170 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Not more than twelve houses are permitted to be erected on any 

 one acre, and the average is approximately about half that number. 

 All new buildings which have been erected are connected with 

 sewers and water mains. 



When the town is completed the population will number about 

 35,000. The city will not be permitted to expand beyond the area 

 delimited for urban development, unless as a result of the process 

 of jumping over the agricultural belt and forming new urban develop- 

 ments beyond the rural area. Thus there can be no separation of 

 the urban and rural parts of the scheme, which affords an example 

 of a kind which is unique in the world. 



Another scheme, which may be referred to as an example of the 

 extent to which the garden city movement has influenced the develop- 

 ment of private estates, is that of Knebworth, belonging to 

 the Earl of Lytton. The new town, which was planned in 1908, 

 will be practically in the centre of the Knebworth estate, of 

 which the greater part will be reserved for agriculture. This scheme 

 is, of course, not a social experiment, but merely has the advantage 

 of proper planning and building regulations imposed by the owner. 

 (Figure 36). 



These movements indicate the importance which is attached in 

 England in recent years to the linking up of urban and rural 

 classes of development and the intermingling of agriculture and 

 manufacture. The greatest success achieved by the garden city so 

 far has been in demonstrating to the British people the value of organ- 

 ization, proper planning and healthy conditions of life for those engaged 

 in industry. Education by means of such an object lesson is con- 

 vincing and effective. In Canada we are greatly in need of an object 

 lesson as a means of educating our people on the subject of the right 

 kind of development. In spite of the rapid progress that has been 

 made in removing prejudices against any control by governments 

 over development of land and the erection of buildings, and in spite of 

 the gradual realization that unhealthy housing conditions, the separa- 

 tion of town and country and the congestion of industries, do not 

 pay, there is need for a practical demonstration of the value of good 

 development so as to convince the man in the street. 



Probably the garden city movement points the way to the sound- 

 est kind of scheme that could be developed for the purpose of dealing 

 with the problem of the returned soldiers, which is alluded to 

 later.* There should be no difficulty in starting a garden city in 



* Chapter VIII. 



