THE FUTURE CITY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2501, 14 May 1909, Page 2

THE FUTURE CITY.

PORT SUNLIGHT AND PROSPERITY SHARING. MODERN TOWN-PLANNING. (By Charles C. Rondo.) The banks of the Mersey present one of the most remarkable contrasts in human. .habitations that exists in tlio world to-day. 'Nowhere are the differences of 'environment', with all its attendant influences of mankind, more ‘ strikingly demonstrated. Hero arc two pictures. - Down :iii tlie- valley, wedged in be- ■ tween the Ava.ls of great, factories, are rows and rows: of three and .four storied houses, blackened Avilh dirt and smoke, and punctuated by endless chimney-pots ' straggling desperately above the slated roofs. There are neither gardens nor yards—only houses, back to back, gazing gloomily into narrow courtyards, or lyiifdihg j through cramped and crooked streets where Trashing hangs night and day—drab splashes of color that mock, the dinginess. The courts and streets are filled with children and children’s voices revelling round the one tap that probably 'supplies 40 householders. The voices ’sometimes shrill, sometimes husky, sound far into the night, for the call of sleep in tlie slum comes late., Thero is neither sentiment nor joy in the scene. The might of poverty, . the squalor of the surroundings, transfix the thoughts with other things. But where are the parents? Doavu at the street corner there is a low building conspicuous by is tawdry lights and the voices with hi. The state of the atmosphere is shown bv the moisture that runs down the window panes. All life is within save for a seedy figure that scrapes outside on a cracked and broken-hearted fiddle. You may go in if you choose. It is not wise, to do so, not that the people within are not good-hearted and hilarious enough—heaven knows. It is just a question w'hether you can stand tlie atmosphere, the hot, thick atmosphere that nobody inside seems to mind. But just a moment—there! The’swing doors open and a figure lurches, out oil to the pavement. The scene inside is visible for a few moments. Beneath the dim and smoky lamps men aud women—women with babies wrapt in shawls and children clinging to their draggled skirts—are packed against a counter four or five deep. There is a glitter of bottles behind them. Mugs of foaming beer fare lifted on high, and glasses are handed back to those in the rear. The scene is charged with animation. There are shouts, laughter, and snatches of song, but there is a note of ovei-powering disorder, of human madness in that congested mass of. men and Avomen drinking—drinking life and soul to the; [reeling, sivaying dark of squalor. That is a picture of a Liverpool slum. A woodland dell banked Avith flowers winds into one of the daintiest of open spaces. Tlie foliage seems to float through tlie trees in the sunlight. On ail sides at odd intervals peering into the depths of this sylvan loveliness are houses, quaint eaylv English houses, with picturesque gable and lattice, red tiles, and panelled just as Shakespeare kneAV the charming old town of Strat-ford-on-Avon. But here Ave are in a modern village, built but a few years, taking all the best elements out of a picturesque past and applying them With the science of modern town planning to the home beautiful. There are children in Avhite and colored pinnies romping under the trees and in the sunlight. Each house rises out of a bed of flowers. Nature and architecture; go. hand in hand, and everywhere is a vista or a glimpse of beauty. Twelve o’clock ivhistles from a factory someivhere beyond the glade, and presently the treelined road is full of men and women,, youths and girls. They troop by to their homes, smiling and talking. Everybody is clean and bright-faced. There is "a vitality in each step that makes, its own grace. They , roam with the houses through parks .and gardens and radiant thoroughfares. Their village is a dreaiii of Avopdland splendour where life and labor, move amid beauty and contentment. That is a picture of Port Sunlight, one of England’s model villages p’aimed by .Messrs Lever Bros.'on the opposite side of the Mersey, a few miles from Liverpool and the blatant reality of its slums. The Port (Sunlight estate, comprising some 200 acres, consists of a series of well-planned factories, docks, railways, and workers’ dwellings, besides a iargo number of buildings devoted tq tlie religious, educational, and social _ Avellbeing of its inhabitants. It is laid, out, on the best principles of modern townplanning. The housing conditions arc ' almost ideal. Each building is wel l constructed, picturesque, well situated, "and-let at a rent that averages about os a week. In every cask; there is a garden patch with trees, im,front of the; bouse, and at the back are extensive allotment o-ardens. It is the realisation the back-to-the-land cry in England. Water is laid on and supplied free qt, charge. Tuition is given by a practi-cal-gardener, and for flowers aud Aregotables grown in the village prizes are awarded annually ! at the horticultura. shows organised by the controlling firm. In the village!itself there are; a theatre, a public library; technical and o.oincntarv schools, a lecture ball, a museum, boys’ and girlsk institutes, and employees’ provident society, scienti.ic, literary, and mutual improvement societies, a telephone system, bre brigade, ambulance society, bowling and tennis orecns swimming, baths, footoall grounds, rifle range, gymnasium, hospital and-church.. In all tins there is to bo-seen nothing of the monotony and depressing rows of bru.l* and rr.or tar the'hard distressing regulanty of des cm that is common to so inany Engnd colonial cities. Port Sunlight, in fact, sets- a standard above the iim-

dern suburban area, as weli ns providing healthy homes and refining influences iu the environment of its 401)0 workers. The enterprise is described by Mr Lever himself as “prosperity-sharing” —the best means he can find of sharing profits with his workpeople'. Ho has recently stated that' tlio firm gets a return from the- money invested in the better health. and the consequent increased industrial efficiency of the workers. Mr Lover, in short, has given practical recognition of the, relation ,of Aious-!.. ing to industry. ' In order to realise how far a private firm caii i side by side- with its commer- ; cialouccess,; make enlightenecUprovision' for its ivorkers, the institutions of Port Sunlight are ivell worth [studying,' The village is no Utopian project any more than the other model communities in England like Letcliworth, Hampstead, Ealing, Bcmrncville, Leicester, and Hull are. It is a commercial project-design-ed to secure and develop industrial efficiency. Port Sunlight proves that men and women working eight hours a day can turn out more and hotter work than those laboring 10 or 11 hours in other concerns, and living under poor housing conditions. Prominent among advantages enjoyed is that of the Em-., ployees’ Benefit Fund, which is provided entirely by the company. To every employee retiring after at least 20 years’[service at the age of 65, and .< 60'if a female is paid a yearly allowance of £SO per year. Similar provisions are made for those retiring through ill health, or to the widow and child-' roil of a deceased worker. A. Holiday Club is in operation by which a fund is automatically created for ivorkers when the time of relaxation arrives. Faithful .service is acknowledged by the presentation of a gold watch, together with a long-service badge. The Port Sunlight Order of. Conspicuous Merit is awarded in eases of personal bravery. The male workers labor 48 hours and tho female 45. hours per week.; Free tram and train tickets avo provided to those who como from a distance. Cash prizes are awarded in the soap Avorks itself for the best suggestions for labor-saving devices a.ii increased comfort of the workers. These are a few of tlie more interesting and suggestive phases of life at Port Sunlight. The spirit of the workers is said to be very- appreciative, although there are times when a. more restless spirit that the mass is apt -lo rebel agaiiist—-what has been termed “the benevolent autocracy” of the firm. The drawback to the scheme is that mauy of its .advantages which the workers receive cannot be translated into terms of pounds,; shillings, and pence—at least not at present. That is what seems to be in tho future between labor and capital. Thr. pros-perity-sharing sememe as it works at present is no guarantee that the demand of labor, for a full sharo in the wealth that it creates, is being fulfilled. But compared with, what exists for the majority of British workers to-day, Port Sunlight is a guarantee that a considerable share of its prosperity is going into tlie health, the happiness, and surroundings of its workers. It is the half-way house to an absolute scheme of co-operation or co-partnership ‘between the laborer and the employer, which seems to be a powerful alternative to State control, but that has yet to develop and be given practical demonstration. Judging by the opposition of the trade unions and labor generally to Sir Christopher Furness’ scheme of co-partnership, that roahsation is a long way off. Tho decentralisation of tho crowded aroas of the modern city, the limitation of the number of houses to the acre, and tho pcppleylthat shall live therein, tho creation of dir [spaces, of picturesque environment and the inspiring of mankind to a higher plane of thought and consideration for his inhabitation are all one AV.ith this remarkable movement of the twentieth century. Tlieir essentials are crystallised into the principles of the town planning that made it possible for Port iSun-fio-ht to arise in beauty and scorn with loathing tho hideous picture that stares from across tlie river.' Lmortunateh that picture cannot always bo entirely disassociated ivith our colonial cities. Is it therefore a good or a wise policy that they ‘should go on developing as they are doing Avithout: some regard or some appreciation of the knowledge and the experience that, lies beyond the seas in modern England to-dav.