Planning and Development of Towns and Cities in South Australia. Report by the Government Town Planner ... upon existing Conditions and Defects and the Need for Town Planning Legislation relating thereto in Conformity with the Provisions of ... the Town Planning and Development Bill, 1919
Adelaide, R.E.E. Rogers, Government Printer, 1919.
Foolscap folio, 48 pages with 23 illustrations and plans (many full-page) plus 23 plates (7 full-page, 8 half-page, and 8 quarter-page, with some from photographs) and 2 folding plates (a bird's-eye view of the proposed 'Mitcham Garden Suburb' - Colonel Light Gardens - and a full colour plan of the Prospect Memorial Park and Recreation Reserve).
Neatly disbound, with some residual backing paper on the spine, and a few fine needle holes in the inner margins; a fine copy (eminently suitable for rebinding; we can arrange for this to be done quickly, professionally and inexpensively).
South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 63 of 1919; one of only 450 copies of this important, and now rare, report. The man behind it was Charles Compton Reade (1880-1933), who was offered by the State Government of South Australia 'a new engagement as town planner from 1 July 1918 for a period of two years'. This paper was 'Ordered by the House of Assembly to be printed, September 25th, 1919'. An article in the Adelaide 'Express and Telegraph' (3 September 1920) gives details of a recent invitation from the Government of the Federated Malay States, seeking Reade's professional advice. He was granted temporary leave from December that year 'for a period of nine to twelve months'. During that period, frustrated by the realization that 'decent people cannot attempt to do decent work for the good of Australia without personal malice and misrepresentation to hinder them', he sought greener pastures. He 'was the first government town planner in the Federated Malay States in 1921-30 ... From 1930 to 1933 he was director of town planning and development for the Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia ... On 16 October 1933 Reade arrived in Johannesburg to become town planning expert for the Rand and Pretoria. He attended a meeting of the Witwatersrand joint town planning committee and offices were engaged for him. On Saturday 28 October he was found shot dead in his hotel room with a revolver beside him. Enquiries made by the "Rand Daily Mail" revealed that he had been "suffering from repeated attacks of malarial fever and was much depressed as a result"' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography').
Item #118715
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