CHARLES COMPTON READE

(1880-1933)

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Charles Compton Reade (1880-1933), born in New Zealand, came like Thomas Adams to town planning through journalism. In London, Reade took up Adams’ old position as advocate of garden cities. He had lectured in New Zealand in 1911 and later undertook an Australasian tour to promote Town Planning with W.R. Davidge in 1914. Later as a government planner in South Australia, Reade designed Adelaide’s showcase garden suburb, Colonel Light Gardens. He went on to frame planning services in the Malay peninsula and southern Africa. He died suddenly in 1933.

Charles Compton Reade was born in East Invercargill, New Zealand in 1880. He was the second son of Lawrence Edward Reade, an Indian-born solicitor from an old Ipsden, Oxfordshire family, and nephew of Charles Reade (1814-1884), the prolific author of The Cloister and the Hearth. His mother was Margaret Hannah Booth of Oamaru, whose family came from Bradford and Darlington. Lawrence Reade’s legal work took him to various places in New Zealand, first in the South Island at Dunedin and Christchurch, and later in the North at Wellington, Fielding, and Foxton. A keen sportsman in his youth, representing Otago and Canterbury at cricket, and a well known oarsman and tennis player, Lawrence Reade fell from a Wellington tramcar in July 1910 aged 63. He died a few weeks later as a result of his injuries and the brain operations that followed. At that time his second son Charles Compton Reade was editor of the Auckland-based New Zealand Graphic, his eldest son Edward was employed at Wellington in the New Zealand railway department, and his third son was a contractor across the Marlborough Sound at Havelock.

An inquest was held at the hospital yesterday concerning the death of Mr. Lawrence E. Reade, solicitor, Foxton, who fell from a tramcar on 2nd July, and suffered an injury to his head. He was subsequently operated upon, apparently recovered, and was discharged from the hospital on 29th July. Deceased was admitted to the institution again on 15th August, suffering from fits. Another operation was performed, but the patient gradually sank, and died yesterday morning. Death was immediately due to syncope. After hearing evidence, the Coroner (Mr. W. R. Haselden) returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony given.

Not long after these events, Charles Compton Reade was in Wellington for his brother’s wedding.

4 May 1911

At St. Anne's Church, Wellington South, this morning, a wedding took place between Mr. Edward B. L. Reade, of the Railway Department, Wellington, eldest son of the late Laurence E Reade, of Foxton, and Miss Catherine M. J. Gallagher, fifth daughter of the late Mr. James Gallagher, Kaikoura. Considerable interest was taken in the proceedings, owing to both parties being prominently associated with, the work of the church, and its societies. The church was full for the occasion, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Father A. T. Herring, S.M. In honour of the event, St. Anne's choir, of which the bridegroom is the conductor, sang Turner's Mass of St. Cecilia, under the baton of Mr. A. J. McDonald. The choir was reinforced for the occasion by members of the Boulcott Street choir. The bride was dressed in a white embroidered princess gown, trimmed with satin ribbon and silver tassels. The usual wreath and veil (embroidered by the Sisters of Mercy) were also worn. She was attended by her sister, Miss B. Gallagher, and Miss F. Vaney, both of whom wore white muslin gowns, Empire style, trimmed with lace and ribbon, also large black velvet hats with black plumes. The duties of best man were carried out by the brother of the bridegroom, Mr. Charles C. Reade, editor of the Auckland Weekly Graphic. The groomsman was Mr. J. L. Leydon, a fellow-employee of Mr. Reade in the Railway Department. As the happy couple left the church Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" was played by the organist, Miss K. Henderson. A reception was subsequently held at Godber's.

When Charles Compton Reade’s stepped forward at his brother’s wedding in Wellington in 1911, his life was in transition from journalism to town planning. He was already an established journalist and editor in his own right. How had he arrived at this point? He was clearly talented, and had become a persuasive speaker. He had worked in London, where he was recognisably a member of a wider family of notable writers. His connection to the legendary William Winwood Reede (1838-1875) opened doors in some circles. And he was a New Zealander, and thereby classified by association with progressive ideas of womens’ rights, social security, and scientific endeavour, and with compatriots like Reeves and Rutherford at the leading edge of the new century.

Pember Reeves (1857-1932) and Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

A COLONIAL AT HOME AND ABROAD

Charles Compton Reade attended Wellington College (NZ) in 1896. What did he do after that? His family connections could guarantee an entry into the world of London periodicals, and he spent time as a journalist in London and travelled Europe in that capacity. His long-dead cousin Winwood was hugely influential –the progressive ideas of his “Martyrdom of Man” inspiring Cecil Rhodes, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Winston Churchill and later George Orwell.

William Winwood Reede (1838-1875)

“It is a sure criterion of the civilisation of ancient Egypt that the soldiers did not carry arms except on duty, and that the private citizens did not carry them at all.”

“It may safely be asserted that the art of war will soon be reduced to a simple question of expenditure and credit, and that the largest purse will be the strongest arm.”

“All doctrines relating to the creation of the world, the government of man by superior beings, and his destiny after death, are conjectures which have been given out as facts, handed down with many adornments by tradition, and accepted by posterity as "revealed religion". They are theories more or less rational which uncivilised men have devised in order to explain the facts of life, and which civilised men believe that they believe.”

“If Christianity were true, religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.”

“Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.”

“If we look into ourselves we discover propensities which declare that our intellects have arisen from a lower form; could our minds be made visible we should find them tailed.”

“The philosophic spirit of inquiry may be traced to brute curiosity, and that to the habit of examining all things in search of food. Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.”

“There is a certain class of people who prefer to say that their fathers came down in the world through their own follies rather than to boast that they rose in the world through their own industry and talents. It is the same shabby-genteel sentiment, the same vanity of birth, which makes men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels rather than elevated apes.”

“We live between two worlds; we soar in the atmosphere; we creep upon the soil; we have the aspirations of creators and the propensities of quadrupeds. There can be but one explanation of this fact. We are passing from the animal into a higher form, and the drama of this planet is in its second act.”

“Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought nothing out but loads of dung. That was their return cargo. London turns dirt into gold. Rome turned gold into dirt.”

“In Europe itself it is not probable that war will ever absolutely cease until science discovers some destroying force so simple in its administration, so horrible in its effects, that all art, all gallantry, will be at an end, and battles will be massacres which the feelings of mankind will be unable to endure.”

“As for the system of the Commune, which makes it impossible for a man to rise or fall, it is merely the old caste system revived; if it could be put into force, all industry would be disheartened, emulation would cease, and mankind would go to sleep.”

Beguiled by W.W.Reade: Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), H. G. Wells (1866-1946), Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Eric Blair (1903-1950)

In London between 1906 and 1909, Charles Compton Reade was reportedly an assistant editor of an unspecified society journal. His interest in social improvement and the title he later edited in New Zealand might suggest that he spent at least some time on The Graphic, owned and edited by Carmichael Thomas. During this time, he wrote articles for Australian and New Zealand newspapers which he later incorporated into The Revelation of Britain, a Book for Colonials (Auckland, 1909). Shocked by the unhealthy conditions in which most inhabitants of English industrial cities lived and worked, Reade warned his contemporaries at home in characteristically stirring and colourful terms to avoid such evils in their own fast expanding cities by adopting town planning as progressive municipal bodies in Germany had done and as demonstrated by English soap magnate William Lever in his Cheshire industrial township estate at Port Sunlight.

Back in New Zealand in 1911, as Auckland editor of the Weekly Graphic and New Zealand Mail, Charles Compton Reade encouraged unsuccessful attempts to enact an Auckland town planning bill and a town planning bill for the whole of New Zealand, printing sympathetic illustrated articles and going out to deliver popular lectures well illustrated by projected pictures.

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Wellington Evening Post, 8 August 1911

TOPICS OF THE DAY,

Houses and Hovels

Mr. Charles Reade, of Auckland, made a very good beginning here last night with his town-planning mission. He filled his hall, and the audience would have been increased by several hundreds if the walls of the building had been elastic enough. "The lecturer has given us something to think about," justly commented the chairman. Mr. Reade did not spring a surprise on Wellington citizens when he pointed to the growing congestion of parts of To Aro flat, but thanks are due to him for his stressing of the fact in a manner to induce the authorities to look for remedies, Nobody here knows better than Mr. Reade, who has studied his subject in England and Germany, that the solution does not lie in a wholesale condemnation and destruction of shabby, huddled hovels. The people displaced from such buildings have to be housed. Destruction and suitable replacement have to go together. Last night Mr. Reade was principally concerned with pointing to the need for action, and his next lecture will set out possible lines of procedure. In Auckland and in Wellington he has done a very valuable public service, at no personal reward except the consciousness of doing solid public good, and we hope to see his efforts heartily supported by public men. This work has long been calling for an enthusiast with knowledge and zeal to stir the people. It is a movement requiring strong men in the open, toiling ceaselessly for the common good, undeterred by bias or ignorance, and undismayed by any obstacles.

Wellington Evening Post, 18 October 1911

"PLAN THE TOWN,"

MR. CHARLES READE TO AID.

When Mr. Charles Reade, editor of the New Zealand Graphic, spoke here recently on the overcrowding of cities, he pleasantly proved that he knew his subject well. He keenly interested an audience which packed the Concert Room of the Town Hall. His purpose then was to reveal the need for action to prevent the dank growth of slums in New Zealand's cities, and his object next Friday will be to help to give a lead. With the aid of limelight views he will show the present system of suburban development in Auckland and Wellington. The people will see how the lands have been cut up and parcelled out for homes. By way of contrast he will demonstrate what town-planning has already achieved in Britain and Germany, where Mr. Reade had opportunities to observe the progress made in recent years. Mr. Reade comes with a message, something definite, something useful to say, and he has matter and manner to give the public a guarantee that his lecture will be worth hearing and his pictures worth seeing.

Wellington Evening Post, 21 October 1911, Page 9

TOWN-PLANNING.

LECTURE BY MR. CHARLES C. READE

Town planning in all its varied aspects; the extent to which it is in vogue on the Continent and in a lesser degree in England; its sad neglect in New Zealand but the wide scope for the applications of its principles here—all this and more was picturesquely portrayed by Mr. Charles C. Reade, editor of the New Zealand Graphic, in a lecture delivered in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last evening. The lecturer handled his subject in an attractive and instructive manner, and added interest was lent to it by a comprehensive series of lantern slides. Several hundred people were present. Mr. Fowlds, M.P. who presided, in introducing the speaker, described him as a public benefactor, in view of the enormous amount of time and labour he had spent in the study of a subject which had been paid so little attention by public men in this country. Liverpool furnished a bright example, having established, a chair of town planning. Mr. Fowlds concluded with the remark that the way in which suburban areas were being cut up in New Zealand was a disgrace to civilisation. In prefacing his lecture with the quotation, "God made the country, man made towns, but the devil made suburbs." Mr. Reade added that, so far as New Zealand cities were concerned, the devil must have had a particularly busy time. The first half of his lecture was devoted to an exposition of slums in the making in the suburbs of Wellington and Auckland, and by a number of excellent photographic views, Kilbirnie-flat and Miramar were drawn into the limelight, and "shown up.” Glimpses of Auckland, a city which had supplied 150 blind roads in five years, afforded an illustration of the inevitable result of cutting up the land by the individual instead of by the community. In deploring the fact that areas of virgin country were transformed by unheeding subdivision into "forests of chimney-pots," the lecturer dwelt upon the fallacy of allowing Miramar and numerous other suburbs to be cut up without an acre of land being set aside for recreation and other public purposes, while the syndicates all along pocketed the unearned increment. Speaking in the latter half of his address, under the heading of "Town Planning in Practice," Mr. Reade sought to remove several misconceptions as to its true ideals. Its purpose was not, for instance, the securing of "nice homes with broad streets, and pretty gardens for poetical people.” Germans were practical enough, but this did not deter them from going in for wholesale town-planning, as seen in the laying-out of Dresden, to single out one city for special reference. Magnificent views were screened by the lecturer, of town-planning villages and cities on the Continent and in England—in the making, or already developed— and these, when supplemented by a recital of his personal observations, furnished evidence that the movement was simply a systematic and scientific method of preventing slums and at the same time enabling the mass of the people to get homes for themselves, with plenty of light and air thrown in, without paying enormous sums to speculators. Mr. Reade stirred his audience to several outbursts of applause when he demonstrated in a convincing manner that, apart from the happy and healthy conditions in life which it was the direct means of fostering, town planning was invariably a sound business proposition. He also emphasised that town planning did not mean the creation of sleepy-hollow hamlets to the neglect of the cities, which, indeed, furnished the basic ground for the movement. Further, he pointed out, amid applause, that the scheme could never be put into effect until the municipalities -and not speculating individuals- were left to subdivide our suburbs. and fashion our cities and reap the pecuniary benefits thereof, for assuredly town planning "paid" in more senses than one. Mr. Reade was heartily thanked for his address, and Mr. Fowlds for presiding.

In 1912 Reade returned to London and was active in the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association of Great Britain, both in pressing to organize a proposed Australasian town planning tour and, in 1913, as acting secretary of the association and acting editor of its magazine Garden Cities and Town Planning. On 26 February 1914 he married Marjorie Pratt, secretary to the musician and conductor Landon Ronald, conductor of the New Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and Director of the Guildhall School of Music.

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1914 town planning lecture tour of New Zealand with WR Davidge

Australian Tour 60 lectures in 5 states

Australian Law

South Australia

successive Labour & Liberal governments: Vaughan & Peake

Adelaide planned suburb

Australia's first Town Planning and Housing Conference and Exhibition in Adelaide

Brisbane: second conference & exhibition

'Practical town planning'

malice and misrepresentation

First government town planner in Federated Malay States 1921-30

Town Planning and Housing Exhibition Kuala Lumpur 1926

Director of town planning and development for Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia 1930-33

Town planning adviser for the Rand and Pretoria 1933. Death.

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