WELLINGTON STREETS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 169, 10 April 1908, Page 3

WELLINGTON STREETS.

ABE WOMEN SXFE IN THEM AT NIGHT?' - , ...' AN EXPERT'opinion. This is a'question tliatj affects a very largo number of ■ Wellington women. There aro those who Jive in sheltered homes,'who never have to go.abroad at, flight without a protector, whose parents or menfolk would never ■dream of allowing them to.return home from any place after an early evening "hour, but these., women aro in tho minority, for most' women nowadays have to fend ; for th emselves,. alid. especially is this the case in.■' Wellington —a city of' boarding-houses, a-city of : many -unprotected women. One hears tho question'" of tho safety of tho' streets very .often, discussed , whore a number of independent. woiMn are gathered together, .and .hears (.often ; little' stories'of unpleasant encounters, or.-the shadowings of'encounters that might have beeii unpleasant.' So'mo'girls take, a, I very bravo . tone. l They say thai, as long as a girl walks about alone in a business-like manner, taking no notice of-words addressed to lior by'.'any passor-by, sh'o is quite safe: 1/tliat it - will be understood she does hot mean I' :lfo>bo.trifled with, and she will, bo left alone/ But every girl, is not' so. satisfied, and many a _ girl.walks along a dark street at night' .wishing' she possessed a bull-dog. However alarmed sho may feel, she 'must, go.,by. horself.' There is, no one to go about .with .her, arid unlesssho wishes to '.condemn, herself to a safo. security: in her own home, boardinghouse, or whatever it ...may ~ be, she must, bravo the terrors of tho street, praying'that they majy. bo only imaginary.. Year ,by year the' number,- of these, women grows, as; lSoro women enter into' business' life- and 'engago in work that obliges them to go abroad, and, taking into account-tho number who have to go out;at_ night if they want to go out ,at. .'all, tho,: maid-'sqr.vants, . factory girls, shop' girls,"and clerk's,i Jiot. to mention those y.'ho often have: to return to'their, offices''for over-. jrill bo seen, that the number of' respectably" employed .women who have to ■ trust : at .night '.to the ; safety. of tho"-streets is vory. large.., , ' .... And. to- what .extent are l the Wellington ."streets safo ..for' women?.'. All : sorts' of : opinions are hazarded, but " Dominica " did not .want chance' opinions; sho wanted, to hear .what those, who know had ,to, say,, and sho . straightway repaired .to , " One . Who 'Knew." , His sansiver. was'■ startling.' " I should never," lie. said,. " allow 'my wifo or any .- woman - relative - to go' out alone: after : half-rßasbinlno at night." Half-past, nine! It seemed a. preposterously, earJy hour. Half-., past; nine!!_ .■ Why,' tho*.most: timid. woman thinks'.'she. is.,safo at least until ten. or'ten-, thirty. After sho .does begin, to feel alarmed. But the "One Who Knew" was firm. Perhans much later at night, lie said, it might , bq safer than: during the compara-,. tively early hours. The .people who wore then hanging about might, have retired to their ..homes,,'. b ; ut' it. was' not good for ,'a. woman to be" in.tho quiet streets of tho town' after h'alf-p'astnine. : . ; The extension of the tram system has made it safe for women to go about much moro than they used to. do. The tram strcots wore better-lighted, and if a woman wero bothered, and believed she was being .followed, sho could often jump into a tram and leave her tormentor far .behind.. But' i.ii tho quieter streets, , the terraces, and back streets of tho .town,' women should mast . certainly bo accompanied if they had to bo abroad at any late hour.. A hundred times, they might be safe, and the noxt time have an unpleasant experience. It .was not tho normal 'character who was to be feared, but tho abnormal 01:0, who might bo; met with at any time.», Of course, early in tho eveh-ing-r-tliat is- to say,, between, nine and ten and later —tliero was the. danger of meeting with someone under the influence of liquor, but the abnormal person often is not under the influence of liquor in the least. ( "Dominica" pursued her inquiries, and she learned this interesting fact: that the army of charwomen who 'liavo to go down in tho small hours of the morning to clean out offices aro apparently never molested. It lfiay bo that at that hour the world is clean and fresh, and. 110 night birds aro abroad, but the fact remains jthat town is safer then than'three, or four'hours, earlier. Now to a, working woman tliis seems'a question peculiarly calling .■ for women's intervention. Nearly half the inhabitants of, Wellington belong to what is gallantly called the weaker sex. Why should' not sufficient protection bo accorded to. them to let them live safely in their'own city?. It is largely a question of lighting. Sydney' is a safer town than Wellington, for all its slums and streets of evil name, 'for Sydney is brilliantly, lighted. It. is largely a question of policing. Two or three' years ago a well-known Wellington woman asked a constable what part of tho. city he patrolled at night, and . his .'answer was given in such a huge area that she de-clared-she'was terrified out of her wits for weeks,, until l ,sho -gradually grew accustomed —as one grows accustomed 'ugly facts— to tho knowledge that thero, was practically 110 polico protection for the wide district in which'sho lived.