12 APRIL 1930, Page 15

Under encouragement from Lord Milner, whose " master- bias "

was rather towards botany- and gardens than to pro- . consulship, he first launched the theme of regional planning in his book on the organization of the new Kent that must succeed the exploitation of its coal. That book, with its maps, its explanation of the practice of scheduling and zoning, is a classic : a new art was discovered. It was a delight- ful object-lesson in constructive imagination to travel over the wide area, where mines would soon be opened, and see it planned in terms of mining villages, agricultural belts, and public parks. If only someone could have done this when Watt perfected his engine, and the rage for industrial produc- tion blinded the whole population. Health and happiness were destroyed in the slums just as beauty and grace were destroyed in the landscape. The later motor revolution leaves a wake of ugliness as disagreeable as the noise and reek of an unsilenced exhaust from an over-oiled engine. A new England is as certain a result of the motor age as a new Kent of the coal fields, * * * *