46 
is well provided with parks and open spaces — but they were un- 
evenly distributed — the following is the expenditure: — 
£ s. d. 
Purchasing land for Parks and Gardens . . . . 37,000 0 0 
Opening out Blind Streets — Extension and Wid- 
ening 38,563 0 0 
Rounding off Street Corners 1,192 0 0 
£76,775 0 0 
Costs the Ratepayers at 5 per cent, each day of 
the year 10 10 0 
Per year 3,837 15 0 
This is only the beginning. We and our children will have to 
pay in Perth alone many tens of thousands of pounds in trying to 
undo the errors of the past. Then what will it cost the other towns 
and suburbs in this large State of Western Australia'? Hundreds 
of thousands, possibly millions. 
To prove this let us take Sydney’s and Melbourne’s experience — 
Bounding off Street Corners. 
A few years ago the Sydney Council bought 5 J /2 square yards 
of a corner at the intersection of George and King Streets for which 
they paid £1,500. The whole block of land was purchased in 1823 
for £63. 
Through the action of the Town Planning Association of West- 
ern Australia, the local authorities arc making it compulsory in 
new subdivisions to round off the corners of new streets and the 
Surveyor General has agreed to adopt the same procedure in new 
towns and suburbs. This alone will save the next generation many 
thousands of pounds, and at no cost to ourselves. 
Sydney and Melbourne — Shims and. Housing. 
The Sydney Council have during the past 12 years made 83 re- 
sumptions to get rid of slums and to widen streets. Up to 1917 
the total sum paid was £2,304,047, and other resumptions have since 
been made and there will be many more. This is not all loss; it may 
be recovered at the end of 50 years when building leases fall in and 
through the resale of some of the land. Slum houses were being 
knocked down when I was in Sydney last August, but what has been 
done in only the beginning. 
Melbourne spent £100,000 to resume undesirable areas, but that 
sum only purchased two overcrowded block of land, and the au- 
thorities are undecided as to what to do further owing to the pro- 
hibitive cost. 
