QUEEN-STREET HAWKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 258, 29 October 1907, Page 6

QUEEN-STREET HAWKERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Perhaps in no part of the world is the babel and congestion of street hawkers more objectionable and unbearable than they are in that part of Queenstreet between the Thames Hotel and j George Fowlds' warehouse. From morning till night it is one perpetual screech, screech, screech, and the noises are not of the most melodious nature. As is well known, the traffic at this part of the street is at any time very congested, but added to by the at times stationary hawkers, accidents are liable to be frequent. Only recently a coroner's jury added a rider to their verdict to the effect that carts and vehicles were to go slow here, but it can easily be seen that the hawkers' vehicles seriously impede the traffic. A petition which was lately sent by shop keepers in this block to the City Council had no effect whatever, and it is about time the Press took the matter up and had this excruciating nuisance put a stop to. Then from a commercial and financial point of view the storekeepers and fruiterers cannot but suffer, as not only do the street hawkers undersell them in their produce, but the public prefer doing their business in a quieter neighbourhood, and naturally go elsewhere. It is about time that the street inspectors looked into this disturbance, and had these men moved on. Strange you do not find any such nuisance in other parts of the streets of Auckland, and why they should all congregate here is a puzzle to the shopkeepers in the block.—l am, etc., 6, Queen-street. WM. EVANS.