TOPICS for WOMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 23

TOPICS for WOMEN

It is a curious thing that when elections are due, and, naturally the newspapers give a great deal of information about them, there is quite a large section .of people, both men and women, who do not take the slightest interest. This is specially remarkable when the elections are civic, as it is so immensely important to get the best possible people to administer the affairs of a city. It matters to everyone if there is lack of progress, lack of co-ordination among the heads of departments, which makes for muddles and faulty administration; and it matters in the'highest degree how the civic money is spent in order to secure the best results for the health and well-being of the people. Another notable fact is that every city is well provided with grumblers who are always ready to find fault but not ready to make any constructive suggestions. The lazy armchair critic is one of the worst possible people to deal with. He decries his city on all occasions, finds fault without end—and yet does not even take the trouble to set forth his views in the Press. This last is of the ■ greatest value as a means of Spreading information, and many a good, idea has come from the suggestions of quiet people who take the trouble to write a letter and make a constructive suggestion or put forth a new idea that is helpful. .

' It is to be hoped that in the coming election; women will do their part to help their own city. Many people, of course, have many minds, but it is possible to think, out the things necessary round one's own home or districts and endeavour to get some knowledge of the prospective candidates' ideas—if they are progressive or- otherwise. It would be rather wonderful to find that a new council was not afraid to step out of the beaten track, and would originate changes that ..would benefit the conduct and appearance of the city. Without discounting what has been done and well done in a number of directions, no unbiased person could possibly say that there is not a great deal remaining to be done that would be of immense benefit. ■ What : the council decides is of such importance to the health of the city. Any meanness in the spending of funds, any carelessness in administration, or restriction in effort on account of the parsimony mentioned, makes a world of difference to any city.

Then as to conserving the beauty of a city. Wellington is singularly

The Scheme of Things By M.H.C.

favoured in its glorious situation, but few people whose eyes are of use to them can help regretting that there is not a little more spent on "tidying up." One of the things that strikes any person who has recently returned from ■ other parts of the world (particularly the Old Country) is the shabbiness and lack of neatness, even quite within the city. It is, of course, to be kept in mind that Old England has for centuries been beautified, and beautified over and over again, so that it is like a wonderful garden nearly everywhere, and it is impossible to expect that this country, which has been settled by Europeans for less than one hundred of years, should attain to such perfection. But there are cities within this Dominion where the people themselves have taken a great pride in doing part of the work themselves, and have not left everything to be done out of the civic funds. There are whole terraces where each resident keeps neat the piece in front of his home—whether it may be a temporary one or not. In one city the civic authorities have planted . trees at. intervals, arid there is grass beneath which the people keep neat; in many cases the plots have been dug round each tree and these have been planted with violas,

mignonette, and other hardy flowers. Such terraces as these are a joy to behold. What Wellington sadly needs is a Garden Council with opportunity to visit a number of the residential parts, and endeavour to interest residents in their own street or terrace. There are always untidy folk who throw greasy papers, bags, cigarette butts, and cases, etc., about, but if the residents undertook in turns to. keep the place neat with an occasional raking and place the rubbish in receptacles provided by the city, people here, as in a number of other places, would soon take a joy in tidiness and order and it would be a case of "woo betide" anyone seen to scatter rubbish in their domain! In this way the cviic authorities would be greatly assisted and no doubt encouraged to help the people who help themselves. It is very unlikely that if Cubbish tins were asked for and fastened up at reasonable intervals, they would not be provided gladly by a live council. It is the lack of interest of so many people that prevents these things being done on the same lines as in other places. People come back from visiting this or that city and say how beautifully planted it is, how lovely the flowers, and how neat the streets, but they dp not seem to realise that Wellington is their city, their home, their own belonging, and it is up to them to do something to help keep their city beautiful within as it is without.

There are quite a large number of buildings that have been here since the very early days and can be traced in old photographs; they are in our midst still, in many cases unpainted ramshackle, tumbledown, and blots on the landscape. Surely they have "done their bit," and, having been profitable for sixty or even seventy years, might be considered as ready for replacement. In those old days there was little thought of architecture. A door in the centre, and a window on either side, a V-shaped roof, two flat storeys, without the slightest attempt at style of any kind—such buildings were put up for the,, early residents who were glad to inhabit • something better than tents or shacks, but in' a city which is progressing into such modern buildings as two of those lately finished, surely these sixty-and-seventy-year-old places might be bidden farewell to without any loss or regret. It is earnestly to be hoped that women will wake up and evince some interest in these matters—the health and beauty of their own town —and will take some heed of the prospective candidates, looking for those [who will not contentedly sit down, for !a comfortable term in the council without any progressive ideas, and will simply show themselves ready to "let things alone."