“A town or city is not an isolated entity: it is a vital part of the region in which it is situated.” This axiom of city planning aptly explains the nature of the growth of New Zealand's towns and cities. This country has always placed great emphasis upon its rural activities; the fertility of its soil and suitable climate has enabled it to become one of the world's most important suppliers of butter, meat, and wool. These are the principal exports, the mainstay of its overseas exchange, and consequently the major source of its prosperity.
Most of the towns and cities have been established to service the rural areas; to process and distribute their products. Their growth, therefore, is closely related to the productivity of their respective regions: hence the Canterbury Plains and the Waikato regions have stimulated the growth of their urban areas to a greater extent than less-productive districts.
At certain periods of the country's history other commodities have originated urban settlement: the exploitation of native timber created mill towns; the Otago goldfields gave great impetus to the development of Dunedin in the sixties of last century and created other towns such as Alexandra and Roxburgh; but the impetus ceased as the activities declined. On the West Coast of the South Island there are extensive coal fields serviced by towns like Greymouth and Westport. These are based upon a more stable industry but in recent years the universal use of oil fuel has checked their steady growth. In most cases the continued development of the towns based upon these transient activities have been due to the slower but more permanent influence of pastoral or agricultural development.
In recent years the timber industry has assumed fresh importance with the processing and marketing of exotic plantations. This has created new towns, such as Kinleith and Kawerau, which have developed rapidly: a growth that would appear to have greater permanency as the scientific farming of trees is less transient than the wholesale cutting of native forests.
The population of New Zealand in 1858 was approximately 100,000; in 1911 it exceeded a million and the 1961 census brings the figure close to two and a half million, a number far beyond the employment capacity of rural activities restricted by the available suitable land. Consequently the urban population has increased very rapidly. In 1956 it was 62·6 per cent in all urban areas. The latest (1961) official figure is nearly 63·6 per cent of the total population. The larger urban areas, stimulated by this increased labour force and by other economic factors, have turned more and more to industry as a major employment enterprise. This recent change in function will in time modify the character of the larger urban areas as they become productive in their own right; but to be free from their past dependence on rural production they must be able to compete in the world markets and thus produce their share of overseas exchange. At the moment this is not the case as the industries are in large measure dependent upon the earnings of the rural community for the purchase overseas of their basic materials and equipment.
It is customary in New Zealand to define all boroughs and cities as urban, and all counties as rural. To reach borough status the population of a defined area must reach 1,000. A city is defined as a borough with a population of at least 20,000. The boroughs and cities elect their own governing bodies: the difference between them is simply one of status as both operate under the authority of the Municipal Corporations Act. The rural areas are under the control of the county councils and include many small towns not of borough status. When a particular urban area grows in importance several boroughs, originally independent settlements, merge to create a city; but such amalgamations are voluntary and in some cases the ratepayers reject the proposal, particularly when a city has been created and wishes to incorporate adjoining boroughs. A most interesting example of this situation is the borough of Newmarket, an important business area in Auckland; it is 182 acres in area, containing less than 2,000 residents, and is entirely surrounded by the city administration, separated in terms of local government but included within a single economic unit.
It follows that most of the larger urban areas contain a number of boroughs as well as the city administration. In addition there are certain urban districts or suburbs located in adjacent counties which logically belong to the city. Hence, for statistical purposes, cities are called “urban areas” and their population is determined in the manner described. The boundaries so established are rarely constant, although they may be held for a time for statistical comparison, but in fact they expand as the towns or cities grow by absorbing adjacent areas and their population. This makes a comparative study of growth in terms of population both complex and difficult except as a guide for general trends of development. The pattern thus created is a series of small settlements in country areas which might be termed “urban” but are in fact simply points of supply for the neighbouring rural districts. A large number of towns of borough status and 14 “urban areas” or cities are located at strategic points for external and internal trade.
The cities are not large by world standards. There are four major ones, Auckland and Wellington (including the Hutt) in the North Island; Christchurch and Dunedin in the South Island. Auckland is the largest and its population is less than half a million: the other three are still below a quarter of a million and no smaller city has yet reached 50,000, the usually accepted number for designation as a metropolis, although both Hamilton and Palmerston North have nearly reached that figure.
The majority of the towns of borough status have less than 10,000 people, but size is relative to total population and the functions the urban areas perform. This purpose, as has already been shown, was in the past and to a great extent is still, the servicing of rural enterprise. The impact of industrial activity caused by the constantly increasing population of the country has so far only seriously affected the growth of the larger urban areas which, due to their location, are most suited for industrial expansion. In these areas, population increase will be rapid thus altering completely the urban pattern.
The four major cities are evenly distributed throughout the country, Auckland and Wellington in the north and south of the North Island, and Christchurch and Dunedin widely separated in the South Island. These locations were most carefully selected, all are served by good harbours for overseas trade, and each is strategically placed to serve rich pastoral or agricultural land. It is not surprising therefore that they have grown into large urban centres. The development of the country spread outwards from these centres: this even distribution and their more or less simultaneous development is frequently commented upon as a most desirable pattern of colonisation, and was due very largely to the mountainous nature of the country and the separation of the two islands by Cook Strait. Interrelationship in a national sense was very difficult in these circumstances; consequently each settlement developed its own character and progressed in close association with the productivity of its own district. Auckland became the centre of the rich Waikato dairy industry. Wellington was the capital city and the natural outlet for the Hutt Valley and the Manawatu. Christchurch flourished on the rich pastoral lands of the Canterbury Plains and Dunedin on the Otago sheep country together with an exciting interlude of rapid expansion during the gold mining period. There were three other early settlements all on the West Coast of New Zealand, New Plymouth and Wanganui in the North Island and Nelson in the South Island. These did not grow so rapidly because access to West Coast harbours was more difficult and the rich lands of the interior were not as accessible, but each of these centres has grown into urban city areas.
Intercommunication between the centres was at first chiefly by a long and dreary sea journey. Rail connection between Dunedin and Christchurch was made in 1878, but Wellington and Auckland were not linked until 1908. Internal communications have steadily improved since that time. There is now a network of modern highways, railways, and airlines connecting the respective centres with rapid transport. As a result the cities' functions are being coordinated. They are in a sense losing their independence and, in some degree, their individuality.
Population density is also involved because the greatest number of people congregate in the established industrial areas. It seems that, when a population of a growing industrial centre reaches a certain point, its very presence acts like a magnet to other industries which are attracted, no doubt, by the labour potential and the local consumer market. It also attracts labour from the rural towns and villages and to some extent from smaller centres. Under these circumstances it is inevitable that the favoured cities will grow rapidly. It is already apparent: the four major urban areas now have a population of over a million, or two-fifths of the total population. Over 500,000, or more than half of this number, live in the Auckland area which for various reasons is at present the most favoured industrial region.
The inland cities are of later development. Hamilton, the largest, had its origin at the close of the Maori Wars. Its prosperity stems from its location on the Waikato River. The business centre of the prosperous dairy industry, it has developed as a service town, but now that its population is approaching metropolitan status it, too, is turning to industry of a somewhat specialised character. Palmerston North, the other large inland city functions similarly for the progressive Manawatu pastoral area. They may be regarded as dormitory cities to Auckland and Wellington respectively: first in a service capacity to rural activities and, later, as industrial offshoots concerned with the manufacture of goods for local consumption.
The South Island population has grown at a much slower rate than the North Island. At the beginning of the present century the total population was evenly divided between the two islands. Today, 70 per cent are in the North and 30 per cent in the South. The lower density of the South Island has slowed its change-over to industrial activity, most of which is concentrated in Christchurch and Dunedin. The inland towns are therefore smaller and can be still classified as service towns to their respective regions. The smaller cities like Nelson, Timaru, and Inver-cargill are centres of development in their own right, processing and exporting their regional produce. There are also comparable urban communities in the North Island; Tauranga, Napier, and Hastings, servicing the prosperous Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay districts.
All these towns and cities are growing as the overall population increases. In time they will establish urban functions of greater diversity but it will be a long time before they challenge the supremacy of the four major urban centres.
At first glance New Zealand towns and cities appear typically British in character, but lacking the intrinsic charm which the latter have gained through the centuries. Superficially, this is a correct impression; indeed, it would be exPected when it is remembered that over 90 per cent of the population of New Zealand is of British origin and that development over a century and a quarter is inadequate, historically, to produce markedly national characteristics in the absence of compelling geographical or climatic reasons for them. The impression, too, is given colour by the nature of the country's treatment – its green fields, hedgerows or stone divisions, and even the names bestowed upon the towns such as Cambridge, Christchurch, Dunedin, and New Plymouth. Dunedin was founded by members of the Scottish Free Kirk, Christchurch as an Anglican community, and New Plymouth's first settlers came from Plymouth. All these factors tend to create the impression of a Britain in the Southern Seas. It is, however, a superficial impression because towns and cities are built to serve specific needs. The primitive requirements of the early settlements were very different from the traditional cities of the Old Country and in the course of time the way of life in New Zealand has been expressed in the character and form of all its towns and cities.
A feature of the urban areas is their low density in terms of land use. Seen from the air the cities give a false impression of size owing to their extensive land coverage. The four main centres have overall densities of between three and four people per acre and the smaller cities and larger towns have less than two persons per acre. This characteristic had its origin in the size of the urban lots sold to the first settlers. It persisted through the years by a standard minimum requirement of a quarter acre for residential subdivisions. This large unit may have been due to the common use of inflammable timber for buildings and a fixed determination to prevent in this new land the overcrowded conditions of many cities in Britain, a condition which influenced many early settlers to migrate.
Now that the cities have increased in size to metropolitan status, this policy is the subject of criticism. The fertile lands available for rural use are limited and the “urban sprawl”, as it is called, is extravagant not only because of the lands occupied but also due to the cost of civic services, water, power, drainage, and transportation. This policy has also produced a tiresome appearance of long monotonous streets lined with villa-like houses on uniform lots. Recent town planning policy has therefore been directed towards increasing the density by reducing the minimum size of residential lots and providing the legal means of consolidating existing subdivisions in central locations into sizes suitable for high-density use by high buildings and for comprehensive estate planning to produce aesthetically satisfying communities in a more restricted space. It is a worthy objective, but its realisation will take a long time and in the meantime the urban areas expand by ribbon development along the main highways and by the subdivision of more rural land.
The individual character of New Zealand cities is largely due to the natural beauty of their surroundings. The sites of the original settlements – Russell in the Bay of Islands, Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch with Lyttelton, Dunedin with Port Chalmers, and others, were chosen, no doubt, because they had good harbours and were otherwise suitable for trade, but nature had endowed each of them with a beautiful setting. Each has a distinctive visual character and each is revered by its residents for its special features. During the progressive growth of the main urban centres some features have been mutilated and others changed in expression, but the essential character of each site has been carefully preserved. Considered as a group, the main urban centres of New Zealand are unique for their natural beauty in a materialistic world
Most of the urban areas were preplanned; that is to say, a development plan was prepared before settlement took place. In this respect they differed from many English towns which grew in a haphazard fashion from small hamlets at main road intersections or on the banks of rivers. In New Zealand the land was first purchased from the Maoris by the Crown or the settlement companies; an urban area was chosen and the site surveyed and sold to prospective settlers, in many cases without inspection. The design pattern followed well established town-planning ideas of the period. In essence it was a rectilineal pattern of streets relieved by some form of central open space. It is often called Roman planning because the Roman military towns were designed in the same way, the central square being used for an assembly ground or market square. Later, the public buildings were built adjacent to the central square which became known as “Civic Square”. The method was used freely in America – Philadelphia is an excellent example – and many Australian cities, such as Melbourne, were planned on the same principle. It had its limitations; it was unsuitable for hilly country and was very monotonous when extended for a large population. It proved, too, unsuitable for modern motor transportation, but big cities and rapid transport were not envisaged in the early Victorian age. Christchurch, with its central square and surrounding rectangular pattern of streets, is the best example in New Zealand. The central square idea had variations; in Dunedin it was an octagon which is still a central feature of the city. In Auckland, Victoria Street was the planned main street connecting a “Circus” at the site of Albert Park with a square called “Hobson Square” adjacent to St. Matthew's Church. This was never built because the plan was misapplied to irregular country and the city logically developed along Queen Street up the valley connecting the waterfront with the hinterland. Wellington, after the first settler landing at Petone (Britannia) was originally planned on the Te Aro flat area, where the rectangular plan may still be seen, the Basin Reserve occupying a space that could have been meant for the market square. In smaller towns further variations may be seen. It was quite common to widen the main street at the shopping site and plant a central rectangular space with trees or a garden. This is often used today for car parking. Cambridge, Pahiatua, and Gore are examples, Palmerston North, however, went back to the square, in this case a very large one, now developed as a city park.
Towns of later foundation were not so generous in the use of space; they appear to have developed outwards from a main street in a somewhat haphazard fashion, probably because the land was in private ownership and therefore subdivided piecemeal; they are thus featureless and often very dull.
The design pattern described was quite unsuitable for hilly land and when the comparatively level land was limited, as in Wellington and Dunedin, it proved insufficient for expansion. Wellington progressed along Lambton Quay and finally to the Hutt Valley, leaving the hills for development as residential areas. The resulting building sites are unique and perhaps unrivalled in their expansive views, but it has proved a costly procedure. Dunedin had similar limitations. In both cases the use of reclaimed land has been freely used for the extension of business and industry. Auckland city moved up the Queen Street valley and spread, tee-shaped, along the ridge called Karangahape Road, with a further extension to Symonds Street. Thus the merit of the early preplanning was to a certain degree restricted by the lack of foresight for the future requirements of traffic and for expansion.
When the preplanned spaces of the “urban areas” had been fully utilised, the adjoining lands were privately owned; hence further subdivision was a matter for the individual owners. This was controlled by regulations as to the size of lots, frontage, and so forth. It therefore lacked the coordination of the original preplanned town and was in a measure haphazard development. Consequently, in recent years, town-planning legislation was enacted to control development in a logical predetermined manner. The full effect of this policy is a matter for the future, but it recognises the wisdom of predetermined development in the interests of efficiency and amenity.
Notwithstanding the defects of these early plans, the urban areas acquired many attractive and useful features as a result. Reference has been made to the squares and gardens which still remain salient points of interest. In addition, parks and recreation grounds were provided in the plans – for instance, the town belt of Dunedin – and these together with generous gifts from citizens constitute the major open spaces in the urban communities. These areas, so essential for health and amenity, would be difficult and costly to acquire under the later haphazard methods of subdivision. Many of them today occupy very valuable central land, but few citizens would permit them to be exploited for material gain.
The major work of the urban community is performed in buildings; indeed, its efficiency is largely governed by their architectural merit. This fact was quickly recognised by the primary producers who, while content to live in modest, or in some cases, primitive houses, insisted upon the construction of butter factories, wool stores, and meat-processing buildings of great efficiency. Consequently some architects have specialised in this work and designed buildings of international significance.
The early buildings of the urban community were primitive and, apart from some places of worship and the occasional civic structure, were built mainly of timber. During the seventies and eighties of last century, and again in the early part of the present one, many substantial buildings were erected to service the growing functional importance of the urban areas. These, for the most part, were “prestige buildings” for banks, insurance offices, and public buildings of various kinds. The designs followed the prevailing fashion of the post renaissance; a period of revivals, Greek, Roman, or Gothic. Every town and city have examples, severe, dignified, and sedate. They were, perhaps, expressive of prosperity, but it cannot be said they made any significant contribution to architectural development.
Houses in the first phase were simpler, functional, primitive but honest; later they adopted the mannerisms of the Victorian period but with certain characteristics of their own, expressed in gables and verandas by carved and decorated finials, barge-boards, and balustrades of an infinite variety in design. Later, the Revivalist cult was seen in designs based upon Georgian, Spanish Mission, and other styles adapted for local use from overseas prototypes. Many were dignified and refined and thus expressive of cultural growth.
The most recent development in the urban scene is the merging of industry and manufacture into the functions of the city. This, together with the freedom of architecture from stylistic fashions, has given impetus to the design of buildings based upon their efficiency of function. It has produced many fine industrial groups streamlined to efficient processing combined with a pleasing form and landscaping so necessary for the contentment and retention of staff. Yet, in this formative period, there are still too many industries struggling to reach efficiency in altered or adapted buildings of ancient lineage.
The change in the approach to design is also seen in the latest buildings for other urban uses. Commercial and administrative buildings of many types are planned about the needs of space and of light and air. Aided by the technological advances made in building materials and methods of construction, they have clean and simple lines and distinctive architectural form. In houses, emphasis has been placed upon efficient plan arrangements, the opening up of the house to sunlight and view, and the adaptation of the building to its site and environment. It would seem that architecture is keeping pace with the changing needs of the growing urban areas by providing the building requirements for their orderly development.
The growth of New Zealand towns and cities may not have been spectacular: perhaps it merely provides a local illustration of changes occurring elsewhere in the world, but it is a good example. The major urban centres were soundly located; they were reasonably planned and they have avoided the slums and other evils of intense urbanisation. They have passed their adolescence and are entering the productive field aimed at increasing the country's prosperity. Their future development offers a challenge to maintain the balance between materialism and amenity; to become industrial communities without sacrificing the natural beauty so richly bestowed by nature on this pleasant land.
by Cyril Roy Knight, M.A., BARCH. (LIVERPOOL), F.R.I.B.A., F.R.S.A., F.N.Z.I.A., Professor Emeritus, University of Auckland.