TOWNS AND INDUSTRY. 
or city planning schemes and ordinances is one important feature of 
modern civic practice in all these old and new countries (including 
Canada and India) that remains conspicuously absent in Australian 
States. 
FEDERAL ADVISER REQUIRED. 
Enlightenment upon and corrective to many matters affecting town 
or city life are required, apart from the costly evils of flats and tene- 
ment housing generally. 
Some of these matters have a profound bearing upon industry and pro- 
duction, such, for instance, as the modern factory area equipped with 
special facilities for transportation by land or water, centralized power 
plants, housing and welfare of workers, &e. The unprecedented shortage 
and arrears in the national housing is another urgent problem as yet 
scarcely understood, but which intimately affects industry and the whole 
Commonwealth. These, and other urban questions, call for immediate in- 
vestigation and study by town-planning and housing experts. Not only 
are wider knowledge and understanding of the manner in which older 
countries have grappled with similar difficulties required, but also expert 
organization and analysis of the different kinds of local problems requir- 
ing to be met in different centres. 
Certain preliminary steps are being taken in several States, it is 
true, by the preparation of town planning enactments and the 
establishment of special departments. The movement has gained 
ground rapidly also as the result of the recent national con- 
ferences in Adelaide and Brisbane. The third conference, to ibe held 
in Sydney during 1920, will help to further stimulate, interest, and 
educate administrative bodies. But what, in addition, appears to be 
necessary is some continuous national effort in educating public opinion 
and furnishing expert guidance and advice generally to the State 
Governments and Departments seeking to adopt modern town planning 
and housing practice. ‘The Federal Government of the Dominion of 
Oanada solved the problem of supplying expert advice and educative 
material to the provincial Governments by attaching to the Commis- 
sion of Conservation a town planning adviser of British and European 
experience (Mr. Thomas Adams, F.S.1.). His advice and efforts during 
the past five years have resulted in the passage of town planning Acts 
in eight out of nine provinces, and, before long, such legislation, and 
the practice it incorporates, will be general throughout the Dominion. 
Under the Canadian arrangement, experience shows that there can be 
no overlapping or misconception of function, whilst— 
~(1) the work and sphere of the Federal Town Planning Adviser 
are advisory and co-operative, and 
(2) the functions of State Departments of Town Planning are 
executive and administrative. 
At present, whilst much has been achieved through the Australian 
Town Planning Conference and Exhibition, and its Federal Council, 
which should now become permanent, there remains still no sustained 
or organized propaganda in the different States. Some central bureau 
of expert information and instruction is required. Clearly some adapta- 
tion of the very successful Canadian system should lead to similar 
permanent results in Australia. It is a matter which intimately affects 
the Institute of Science and Industry. 
C.5658.-—5 113 
