OVERCROWDED SYDNEY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16841, 22 May 1920, Page 10

OVERCROWDED SYDNEY.

— » WHAT 750,000 PEOPLE PvJT "DP WITH. (FEOil OTTO OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, May 11. One sees paragraphs occasionally in New Zealand newspapers which suggest that the citizens of some-of the big New Zealand towns find grievous fault with their municipal government. If they want to realise how well off they aro they should live in Sydney for thres months. If life in tho gay harbour city has its attractions, its frightfully overcrowded condition is attended by grave disadvantages. The population was rushing ahead of public services in 1914. Since then, thero has been no miney for even urgent public works, but tHe population has gone on increasing. The lack of housing is notorious, and need not be enlarged upon. There is a wi'.d stampede when even' the meanest shack becomes vacant. The rentals of go :d houses range from 3os per week upwards, and one gives anything up to £5 "for tho key"—wliic-h is pradically a bribe to the agent, or some inte: q-tsd party. The city reeks with questionable comof that character. The city is being riuged-in with great blocks of self-containcd flats. An average flat — dining-room, two bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom, unfurnished, two or three storeys jip —cannot be had for lcs3 than £2 10s per week, plus gas and electric power, and they up to £4 4s. If the flat is furnished, tho rental is higher by £1 or 30s. An elaborate system of underground railways was being constructed, but tho work ceased in li'l6, owing to lack of money. Result, the transport facilities are terribly congested. "The trams, trains, and ferries perform marvels — those who see the dense masses of peop'o they shift declare that they are a3 efficient as any in the world—yet travel in the. "rush" hours is a horror. The city is surrounded with holid y resorts, yet thousands stay in the city, month after month, rattier than endure the frightful crowding on the trams and ferries. The telephone and post-office facilities have not been kept up with the growing population, with the result that the 'phone service cannot cope with the demands upon it, and is in a dsplorable condition : and tho post office is rot much better. It is practically impossible now to get a new 'phone in: miny people in the suburbs who lodged applications eighty months ago are still waiting. It is the same with the main arterial roads in and out of. the city. The strain of rfheir maintenance, years ago, became too great for the local bodies, and they abandoned them. They and the State authorities have been fight-'ng about the matter ever since 2 and tho rondfs—well, they a'e simp'y mc edible. There is nothing l'ke them m New Zealand—even _in Auckland, which eniovs some notoriety in that respect. TrafHo avoids them as far as possible, dodging along the side-streets.