THE THEOEY OF CITY DESIGN. 105 



capable of very artistic treatment. The crescents should have 

 segmental plantations between them and the busy highways. 

 ■Crescents in London, Edinburgh, Leeds and other cities, small 

 and great, will readily occur to members. 



Then there should be a supervising architect to pass all plans 

 of buildings before erection. I do not mean merely as regards 

 compliance with sanitary bye-laws and safety of construction, but 

 in regard to taste. The supervising architect should be an arbiter 

 of taste, and while his ideals would not be too high, they should 

 be high enough to prevent any gross offence against taste. 



Coming to matters more particularly within my own province, 

 let preparation be deliberately made for the planting of trees by 

 the sides of streets. Is there a street in Sydney where this has 

 been done? Or a noble avenue in New South Wales? The plant- 

 ing of a tree is not the careless making of a shallow hole and the 

 off-hand putting of a tree therein. We must have good soil and 

 good drainage. If the former is not there already, we must obtain 

 it. No trenching or planting of the permanent avenues or plan- 

 tations should be done by contract. When we plant a tree we do 

 it for all time and therefore no inducement should be offered to 

 do anything which would contend against success in this direction. 

 Everyone has experience of irremediable loss, — perhaps of money, 

 certainly of valuable time, inflicted on citizens who have only 

 discovered bad planting by its after effects in wasted years. 



Amongst public bodies often a labourer is told off either to 

 plant or to tend trees, — a policy that shows that the gardening 

 profession has not attained proper recognition in New South 

 Wales. As a very general rule the citizen calls in the services of 

 a skilled tradesman to satisfy his requirements, as he knows that 

 such a policy is wise, and the truest economy, but the exception 

 he commonly makes is in regard to his garden. If a man has 

 tried everything else he can still be a gardener; this is an economic 

 heresy which is very widespread in Australia. A good gardener 

 is a trained man and one who has frequently undergone a long 

 •and severe apprenticeship, and it will be in the truest interests 



