746 REPORT— 1903. 



To the latter end he advocated the entire suppression of the consumption of solid 

 fuel and the substitution of heating by means of a cheap non-illuminating gas, 

 both for domestic fires and industrial processes, as well as gas produced by the 

 Mond process for motive power. 



To enable the municipality to supply heat, light, and motive power at the 

 cheapest rate, the production of both gas and electricity should be vested in it, 

 together with water-supply and the supply of electricity for public locomotion. 



The necessity for the almost incessant breaking up of the streets, pavements, 

 and roadways of large towns in connection with the various supplies and services 

 has become a serious hindrance to traffic and commerce, and in this regard the 

 author advocated the universal employment of subways beneath the side- walks, 

 and illustrated one of his design, which, whilst making provision for the running 

 of all the services, such as gas, water, electric light, telegraphs, telephones, &c., 

 and their inspection, maintenance, and repair from below, also provided a means 

 for the removal of sludge without the necessity for the employment of mud-carts. 



In connection with this and the watering and scavengering of urban thorough- 

 fares, the author advocated and explained a new form of road section— styled an 

 ' invert road ' — in which the ' crown ' is discarded in favour of two slightly 

 inclined planes slopingyrom the kerbs of the side-walks and meeting in a con- 

 tinuous grid at the centre of the roadway. Such a contour, he contended, 

 possessed many advantages, among them that the use of watercarts would be 

 rendered unnecessary by the employment in connection with them of hydraulic 

 kerbs. 



In connection with the sanitation of the city, the author emphasised the im- 

 portance of devising a means of house-refuse removal, in which the bins should 

 not be emptied into carts in the public highways, and explained his system, in 

 which the lids are not lifted from the time the bins are collected from the houses 

 until they are delivered at the destructor, the transportation being efl'ected by 

 means of a specially constructed cellular motor-waggon. 



2. The First Garden City : its Economic Restdts. 

 By Harold E. Moore, F.S.I. 



Many who consider favourably the proposals of Mr. Howard and other 

 speakers on ' Garden Cities ' are of opinion that the economic difficulties in their 

 foundation are insurmountable. This question is now considered, as a site has been 

 selected for the first of such cities. 



The site chosen, which will be in the possession of the Garden City Company 

 from Michaelmas, comprises about 4,000 acres coming to within one mile of the 

 town of Hitchin and about thirty-six miles from London. The company will 

 doubtless immediatelj' erect a railway station in the centre of the estate, two and 

 a half miles from Hitchin ; make roads, giving access to that station ; erect and 

 tit a brickworks ; open a chalk-pit ; equip gravel-pits ; and do other work which 

 will render available the natural resources of the estate. The total cost will then 

 probably be about 180,000/. This will be an average of about 30^. an acre for 

 the agricultural land, excluding the buildings and accommodation land at a reason- 

 able value. Two different courses of procedure will then be possible. 



The first method is to lay out a model town with avenues and parks and 

 spend large capital in engineering works and buildings. It is suggested that this 

 procedure would result in failure. It would necessitate a large unproductive 

 capital expenditure, cause annual expense in maintenance, involve serious 

 financial risks, and reduce the present agricultural rental and value. 



The second method would be to attract residents on small areas by offisring 

 sites with existing frontages at a rent charge, and also to encourage manufacturers 

 to take land by giving them sites on that part of the estate suitable for manu- 

 facturing purposes on condition that they took further areas at a rent-charge for 

 the erection of cottages for their workpeople. These cottages to be erected by 

 the manufacturer, the intending occupier, or by builders who conform to the 



