Page:Old Towns and New Needs.djvu/61

 land probably cost little or nothing and was free from buildings? At any rate, compare this with the way in which the public now has to pay for every site for a school or other building it requires, for every strip of road widening, for every scrap of open space, play ground or park, just because it does not look ahead and provide for development, but waits until the ground is covered with buildings and has reached almost its maximum value before it makes these provisions. The town plan will not only provide for future extension, but, by the very fact of doing so, will control and guide development along just those lines which will fall in with this provision; and, therefore, it is really possible by the combination of such reasonable foresight as a town plan can embody, with such control and guidance as those enforcing it will exercise, to adjust the provision to the future needs with a very fair degree of accuracy,

A town plan can assist industry by reserving definite areas for industrial purposes, by arranging for the provision adjacent to these areas, of all the required facilities, such as railway carriage, water carriage, ample siding accommodation, space for needful warehouses, bonded stores, etc., and finally by securing, within easy access, adequate areas upon which those engaged in the industries can live under circumstances which will make for health, amenity, and the greatest efficiency. This is being secured by the city plan in many places, some examples of which I will show you shortly, but before doing so, let me ask you to consider what the city of Manchester might have been if its development had been carefully planned and guided by an enlightened Local