468 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
provisions of any town planning legislation must be adapted and not merely 
copied from European precedents. 
The town planning authority should in any case possess free access to all 
land within their area, powers to preserve amenities, powers to reduce con- 
structional expenses by classification of roads according to their uses, powers 
to vary constructional by-laws, and powers to regulate the character and 
description of buildings and the broad lines of architectural design. 
2. The Effect of Town Planning and Good Housing Conditions on Social 
and Economic Well-being. By James Jounston, J.P., C.E. 
Town planning is necessary for the purposes of making a reasonable measure 
of health and happiness—of physical, mental, and moral health, and strength— 
possible in all parts of towns, of giving ready access from one district to another, 
under the supervision of the Local Authority, and for compelling the owners of 
lands to lay out and develop a district on uniform lines as distinct from each 
owner developing his own unit of land without regard to neighbouring estates : 
and not only must cities of the future be well laid out, but in the older and 
congested parts of our towns the slums must be cleared away and amenities 
provided. The Town Planning Act of 1909 gives Local Authorities power to 
provide open spaces and to limit the number of houses per acre, one of the 
best provisions in a somewhat cumbrous Act. 
We have examples of the evil effect of overcrowding in many of the best 
planned towns, especially in Germany, where the people are crowded into tene- 
ment dwellings, entailing loss of physical and moral health, and economic loss. 
The clearing away of slum property in the central area of our large towns is 
one of the most difficult problems to be faced, but it must be dealt with dras- 
tically, as it is of equal or even greater importance than the laying out of new 
areas. 
The cost is the great difficulty, and under the existing law it can only be dealt 
with by clearing away slum dwellings in districts declared to be unhealthy areas 
under the Public Health Acts, and building houses on the cleared sites for the 
people who have been dispossessed, or by declaring the houses, separately, unfit 
for habitation, and compelling the owners to close, put into habitable condition, 
or rebuild such worn-out houses. 
The dominant difficulty in housing reform is the financial one, in providing 
the necessary minimum of quantity and quality for the accommodation of a 
worker’s family, on account of the limited income of the badly paid workers, and 
their consequent inability to pay an economic rent. The real remedy would be 
to give adequate remuneration to the workers, as it is now generally accepted as 
ethically sound that the first charge on any industry should be an adequate wage 
for the worker, and the adoption of this principle would render unnecessary the 
payment of subsidies out of the public purse for housing purposes. 
The method of building houses for the workers in the future is resolving itself 
into a Collectivist system, as the private builder has failed to meet the demand 
effectively. Houses built for the sake of profit-making entirely are generally 
inadequate, overcrowded, mean-looking in monotonous rows, and of inferior 
material and workmanship. This work will have to be undertaken mainly by 
local authorities and public utility societies. 
With facilities for obtaining money at cheap rates, a thorough organisation 
of the work, the more extended use of machinery, and the adoption of concrete 
as the principal building material, it will be possible to produce houses good in 
design, hygienic, and permanent in their construction, to let at an economic rent. 
3. The Economics of Town Planning. By J. 8. NevruEeroxp, J.P. 
Strong economic incentive is more effective for reform than official regu- 
lations. To ensure good housing, it must be profitable to the owner, and bad 
housing unprofitable. The same holds good with cities and their development. 
The main objective of town-planners must be to provide healthy living and 
working conditions for all classes, especially the poor. The first necessity is 
